Youkai High
by SirenAlpha
Summary: Kaoru is a miko attending her first year at a high school full of youkai. She doesn't know what to expect, but she hopes to at least make a few friends and do her best to stay out of trouble. It'll just be a little difficult with friends like these.
1. Golden

I do not own Rurouni Kenshin. This is not the original first chapter. It has been edited because I felt the earlier version did not justify the rest of the story.

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Kaoru glanced nervously up at her new school. As if freshman year wasn't going to be tough enough for her already. Instead of continuing on to high school with the friends she had known for ages, she had been carted here. Despite this school's prestige, this wasn't what Kaoru wanted for her high school experience. This was the most exclusive high school in Japan. Only two types of people were admitted. One type was miko, a person with an entirely human pedigree born with supernatural powers that could be honed for self-defense, or if necessary, combat. The other was youkai, a person classified as less than fifty percent human. The rest of their DNA was inherited from demon beasts of mythical proportions and powers with the capability to shape shift into a human form. After this specific classification, there were necessary requirements to be made. Each admitted student was highly qualified with gleaming records in athletics or academics. If they were special enough to be noticeable on a national level, they were recommended for this school. Most delivered.

Kaoru never had regretted having her miko powers until today. She had never taken a traditional route in her training, it was minimal at best, but she enjoyed having them as back up. She was smart, but nowhere near the genius of these students. She had practiced kendo her entire life practically, but that meant nothing as her strength was untested against a youkai. If anything, she only felt outclassed coming here. She had read articles about students who had graduated from this school. They accomplished things she could never expect herself to.

Almost all eyes were on her as she loitered in front of the main school building. They didn't even feel remotely human. The eyes following her came in near every shade imaginable and lacked any sympathy or empathy. These were people that had made groups, cliques, fortified over the past years of middle school. They weren't interested in a new kid, and they didn't want one either. She felt alone and unwelcome, but pretended to look unconcerned.

The bell rang, and all of the students, including Kaoru, walked inside the building. Kaoru stepped cautiously, and slowly navigated the halls as best she could to her homeroom. She had visited the school the week before and had received a tour, but she hardly remembered any of it. Her anxiety of that day felt paltry in comparison to what she was feeling now. She kept her schedule and map clenched tightly in her hand, and no more than two feet from her face. The halls were filled with more students than there should be, and everyone dodged and brushed passed one another. She couldn't believe how many students were able to meet the standards. Kaoru only felt slightly better when she saw that she wasn't the only one being knocked into. As soon as she made it to homeroom, she found an empty seat in the center of the room and plopped down into it. She had made her choice hastily, and she only hoped that no one else had had their eye on this particular seat. Three people almost immediately crowded around her desk. The smallest one began talking.

"Hi, I'm Makimachi Misao!" the shortest greeted. She was a tiny girl with bright grey eyes, a soft face, and jet black hair tied back into a braid. Her voice was high pitched and surprisingly loud for someone of her size. She gave off the appearance of having an incredible amount of energy, like a tightly coiled spring was hidden inside her waiting to be released and cause mayhem.

"This is Takani Megumi," she continued gesturing to the tall girl standing next to her. Her hair seemed to be cut out from a fashion magazine with straight bangs and even straighter raven hair. Her face, though well framed, was a bit long and looked severe with eyes the color of auburn hair.

"And this is Sagara Sanosuke. We call him Sano," Makimachi finished, sounding pleased.

"Hey," Sano said. He was taller than the girl and had the most unnatural hair cut Kaoru had ever seen. His hair was wood brown but stuck up in a way that mimicked a rooster. Kaoru couldn't tell if he had purposely gelled it that way, or if it had happened on accident.

Megumi nodded in acknowledgement.

"Um, hi, I'm Kamiya Kaoru," she replied, trying to sound more confident than she felt.

"You're not a youkai, so you're a miko right?" Megumi asked, peering intently down at her.

"Yeah," Kaoru nodded.

"Oh wow. We haven't had a new miko in a long time," Misao commented absent mindedly, leaning in close. Her eyes were large and appeared to be dead set on taking in as much visual information as possible.

"Yeah and the only other one in the school is in her junior year," Sano told her before sitting on the top of the desk in front of her. He placed his feet in the seat to face her properly. He seemed to be in the habit of sitting this way.

"And she's not very nice," Misao pouted, sounding like a three year old announcing her accusation.

Sano rolled his eyes, "You can say that again."

"Back to your seats," a male, deep, authoritative voice commanded them.

Everyone in the room scurried back to their seats. The man who had spoken was standing at the front of the room. His eyes were a cold, deadly gold. His face was thin and long, and he stood proudly before his desk. Kaoru doubted anyone would want to get on his bad side. If they did, they were probably in for a lot of pain. "I am Saitou-sensei and you will address me as such. Now, when I call out your names I want you to stand up, and demonstrate what you can do," he said, glaring down upon the class.

Kaoru's anxiety suddenly intensified, and she began feeling sick to her stomach. She slouched low in her seat hoping that she would not be called soon at all. Saitou-sensei called out the first name with a frightening finality to his voice. Every student's head swiveled around looking for the owner of the first name. The person who stood was a girl barely taller than Kaoru with sky blue hair. Kaoru figured she must have been some sort of water youkai because she performed a series tricks using the water from the air in the room. When she sat down, she didn't receive a single comment from Saitou-sensei. He just moved onto the next name. He went through a number of names, and those called performed a variety of various, impressive techniques. He then called out a name that Kaoru recognized. "Makimachi Misao, itachi youkai."

Misao stood up slowly. She glanced about nervously for only a second then threw ten clay disks from her bag into the air. She had obviously known about this beforehand. She quickly pulled out a set of kunai from her bag, and threw them at the disks. Each kunai hit its target before a single one hit the ground. Misao swiftly circled the room, and collected her kunai and cracked disks. "Sagara Sanosuke, bear youkai."

Sano stood from his desk after allowing Misao to pass him. He calmly walked over to the wall. He didn't do anything for a moment, and waited until everyone's attention was on him. He grin then raised his fist, and punched. Instead of maybe cracking the plaster as a human's punch would have, an entire person sized section of the wall crumbled. He sat back down in his seat looking mighty pleased with himself. "Thank you for the destruction of school property Sagara," Saitou-sensei commented for the first time, as well as writing something on his attendance list.

"Your welcome!" Sano grinned.

"Takani Megumi, kitsune youkai."

Megumi stood up with a sigh. Kaoru decided that she was probably one of the ones here for their brain, and not their brawn. Megumi clapped her hands together lightly. Shards of glass came raining down on the students as the light bulbs in the classroom exploded into flames. If anything, Saitou's scowl deepened. Megumi sat back down with the full intensity of Saitou's glare on her. Saitou called the rest of the names, save one. He looked at the bottom of the list when he noticed he hadn't called someone's name. In the bottom corner the word 'continued' was typed. That was ridiculous. The second page wasn't for youkai. He hurriedly flipped the page. On the second page he found a name. "Kaoru Kamiya," he paused, "miko."

Everyone gasped, and turned to face her. The shock was evident on their faces except for the three students who already knew. Then, inexplicably to Kaoru, their stares hardened and they looked away. Their impression of miko had been tainted by the only one they knew. Kaoru swallowed down her fear as best she could. She stood slowly and carefully, hoping not to embarrass herself. She had long decided upon showcasing the one thing she was best at, not including her chosen fighting style. Kaoru raised her hands and without any incantation, created a translucent, metaphysical shield that surrounded her entirely. It came as naturally to her as breathing did. The shield wasn't very large, only a foot out from her body. The light it emitted was a light blue. "Is that it?" Saitou raised an eyebrow, not impressed in the slightest.

She glanced at Saitou. She thought it was more impressive than the water tricks the first girl did. She focused back on her hands. The shield began to expand at a steady pace. It accommodated to the classroom supplies and desks, but not the other students. They were shoved off their seats as the shield expanded. They expected the shield to shock them or something similar, but instead the shield only gently pushed them from their seats. The youkai students backed away from her shield to the edges of the room. The shield ceased expansion an inch before Saitou's face. Saitou smiled slightly.

"Impressive," he said, as he considered the color of her shield. It was an unusual color for a shield to be. Normally miko powers were pink or white. He had never seen a miko with blue powers before, or any other color for that matter. Saitou closed his attendance folder with a snappy motion of his hand. He watched as his class returned to their seats. "No talking, you may leave when the bell rings." he announced definitively. Once he was certain the class understood, he took a seat behind his own desk to complete his work.

The class did as he said. No one spoke a word. No one even made a sound. Everyone sighed when the bell rang eager to get away from the tension. Kaoru floated from class to class throughout the day trying to remember everything she had been told. P.E. finally came around as the last period at the end of the day. She had never felt more relieved in her life. Gym was something she could do, and it didn't involve any heavy thinking. She was almost to class when she noticed Sano running to catch up to her. She stopped to wait for him. "What do you have for P.E.?" He asked as if he had been walking with her the entire time.

"Kendo," she answered and Sano visibly paled.

"Please tell me you're joking."

"I'm not."

"I thought miko were supposed to be archers," he said in a whiny tone, like it was her fault she didn't fit a stereotype.

"Most are, but I'm not. What's so bad about kendo anyways?" she asked. If he insulted her sport, there was going to be a problem.

"Nothing's wrong with kendo, it's just who's in it that's bad. I suggest you switch out of that class as soon as possible," he warned, looking her directly in the eyes. He sounded and looked serious, very different from his attitude during homeroom.

"Why, who's in it?"

Sano glanced around nervously; acting like if someone noticed he said the name out loud he would be in big trouble "Battousai."

Kaoru frowned not understanding. "Who is he?"

"He's the best at kendo in the school, probably the entire country. Not only that he's, like, the strongest youkai in the school. He's only a junior, too! You have to get out of there as soon as possible!" Sano shouted in a whisper.

Kaoru hadn't thought that that was even possible, but Sano proved her wrong. "Oh, well, there's nothing I can do now," She turned to enter the lower gym. Sano's warning wouldn't scare her away from some hot shot junior.

Sano grabbed her arm, and kept her from entering completely "Please consider leaving kendo, please," he pleaded with her, then turned and left for his own class.

Kaoru turned back towards the gym. She took a deep breath. Her nerves were coming back despite her refusal to be cowed by Sano's advice. She entered the gym. There was a group of boys standing in a semi-circle around the stands. Kaoru guessed that there was probably someone sitting in the section of the stands they were gathering around. One of the boys turned to face her. His eyes narrowed at the sight of her. "Battousai," he said.

He turned his body fully to face Kaoru "It's a girl."

Kaoru felt a presence behind her "She smells human."

She took a step away from him. The boy was about half a foot taller than her and was clearly a pure youkai. There weren't many pure youkai left in the world, but that didn't make it any less scary. She hadn't ever met a pure youkai before, and she had no idea what to expect. All she had to go one were placating words from the government attempting to remove prejudices. Another boy stepped away from the group. This one had long black hair tied in a high ponytail and orange marks on his face. He smiled at Kaoru. She fought the instinct to cringe at the sight, and thought that he must be a pure youkai as well. "Miss," he said "I believe you are in the wrong place."

The two youkai circled around her like hawks watching prey. "Yahiko, what do you think we should do with her?" The one with the ponytail asked the other with spiky hair.

"I say we just get rid of her," Kaoru tightened her grip on her bag's strap as he said those words.

A third boy with white hair and magenta had come over. He reached out and grabbed Kaoru's ponytail and smelled it. "I don't know. She's pretty maybe we should play with her some."

"Now now, Enishi you know we can't do that," A fourth boy with a smile plastered on his face admonished the youkai holding Kaoru's hair.

"Soujirou you are never any fun," Enishi straightened letting go of her hair.

"I don't need to be," his smile grew. Kaoru felt a bit creeped out looking at his smile. It obviously wasn't a smile caused by normal unicorns and rainbow happiness.

Another boy, or girl, someone came bounding over to them. He leaned down close in front of Kaoru's face. He appeared to be studying it, or maybe looking for something. Then he ginned. "You're right Enishi. She is cute!" He said standing up. Kaoru felt the situation turn awkward immediately at those words. She wasn't one for being judged, especially for anything outside of academics and kendo.

"Quit being such a girl, Kamatari," the one called Yahiko said this. The awkwardness left at the comment.

Kamatari frowned, and daintily crossed his arms. "We are getting off topic here," said the youkai with the ponytail.

Yahiko looked at him, "You're right Shishio. We still haven't decided what to do with our little intruder."

They then looked her up and down. Kaoru didn't know if their reasons were to see if she could fight or something else entirely. Either way she didn't care. She just didn't want them to be that close. She spontaneously created a shield, sending them stumbling backwards a few footfalls. "Ah, she is a miko," Shishio said.

"Shouldn't you be in archery, then?" Yahiko asked derisively.

Kaoru glared at him "Not all of us are archers."

"Well you should be, if you know what's best for you," Yahiko sneered.

"I like her more," Enishi interrupted, "She's feisty."

"Yeah well I think she's ugly," Yahiko rolled his eyes.

Kaoru doesn't take well to insults. The shield punched Yahiko in the stomach, knocking the air out of him. The aim was perfect, even though Kaoru was resolutely looking away from him. As he was bent over, another blow came up and smashed into the side of his face. He was knocked off balance, and he landed on his backside. He was gasping for breath after being winded from the first punch. He rapidly collected him, and stood up after a couple seconds.

"You'll pay for that!" he yelled.

He charged. She let him pass through her shield. As he passed through the shield, he was shocked by blue bolts of miniature, painful, miko lightning. This time Kaoru faced him. She drew back her arm, and put her body weight into her first punch. She didn't give him time to recover and threw rapid-fire punches and a few kicks at Yahiko until he withdrew and was shocked on the way out for his trouble. He stood hunched over, hands on his knees, panting to get his breath back. "Hmm," Shishio reconsidered her, "Maybe you are in the right place."

By this time everyone in the group by the bleachers was watching them. The four youkai standing around her blocked Kaoru from their view as they tried to catch a glimpse of the new miko. "Hey," Kamatari began. "Yahiko, how's it feel to be beat up by a girl?"

Yahiko glared at Kamatari. "How would you like to be shocked?" he retorted.

Enishi shook his head pitifully at the other boy, "You are such a sore loser Yahiko."

"Yeah," Yahiko forced himself upright, "Well, I'll send _you_ in next time."

Any more bickering was immediately silenced by the opening of the door. Kaoru turned to face the newcomer, and almost groaned aloud. In the door way stood the man she had become acquaintanced with that morning, Saitou. "Battousai, may I assume you are on the rafters?" he didn't even look up as he asked.

A person dropped down barely an inch outside of Kaoru's shield. He stood to his full height. She was surprised. He was only about three inches taller than her. Saitou looked the boy up and down. "You're shorter than I expected."

The boy didn't seem to register the comment. "Where is Maekawa?"

His voice was deeper than Kaoru expected from the slight boy. Neither Kaoru nor Saitou had expected it, but Saitou hid it significantly better. "He retired." Saitou answered emotionlessly.

"I didn't know you knew how to use a sword," Enishi said.

"There are many things you don't know," Saitou replied then started in on the rules, "Tomorrow I expect you all to have brought a gi and hakama. You will not practice with us if you do not have either one of them. Also, we will be using shinai because we have a miko. I don't need a human bleeding all over the floor. Now, I will partner you up and you will spar so I can get a feel of your skills."

Everyone groaned. Saitou went through the list of students quickly pairing off random names. Kaoru ended up paired with Yahiko. Yahiko snickered. He was going to have fun giving her some pay back. He wouldn't break anything, but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt. They quickly gathered their equipment, and faced each other. Yahiko made his first attack quick, sudden, and hard enough for some dark bruising. She countered easily. She had never fought a pure youkai before, but it didn't seem so much more difficult to her. Her arms felt number from his attacks, but his strategy was not the most intricate. She snapped his shinai with a well placed attack. At the sound, most of their surrounding classmates turned to stare.

Kaoru felt all their eyes on her. There was a pair that was different from the other gazes that were on her. She turned to face their owner. She found herself starring into the golden eyes of Battousai. She could tell he was a powerful youkai. The better a youkai could hide his blood the stronger he usually was. He showed no markings on his face as the other youkai did. The only signs were his gold eyes, red hair, and pointed ears. He flashed her a menacing grin, showing off too pointy teeth, and then looked away.

"Kamiya-san," Saitou-sensei called out to her, "I believe you forgot to tell us that you had moved past the use of shinai."

"You didn't ask."

They all snickered. "Because I don't feel like having to replace more shinai, you may talk for the rest of the period," and with that Saitou walked away.

Yahiko glared at her. "So you can fight," Kamatari chirped happily.

Enishi strolled over. "Yahiko, Yahiko Yahiko, what are we going to do with you? You were beaten by a girl, again."

"Oh, shut up. I was caught off guard!" Yahiko glared at him.

"What are you anyways? A prairie dog youkai?" Kaoru asked.

Yahiko had three stripes on each cheek the same color as a prairie dog. "No," he growled, "I am a coyote youkai."

Kaoru could now see his fangs. She bopped him on the head. "Ow! What was that for?" he complained, wrapping his hands over his injured skull.

"Don't growl at me," Kaoru said.

Yahiko refrained from growling. "Oh yeah, you don't know what kind of youkai we are," Kamatari mentioned as he practically glided up next to the group, "Well, I'm a hebi youkai. Enishi is an inu youkai. Shishio is a tora youkai."

It made sense as Karou could easily see the determining markings. Kamatari had green skin around his eyes that looked like eye shadow as well as odd skin texture. Enishi had white hair, as most inu youkai do. Shishio had orange stripes in the exact same place on his face that Yahiko did, but they were thinner and more jagged. "What youkai is Battousai?" Kaoru asked.

Kamatari looked towards the ceiling. "No one knows," he murmured mysteriously.

The bell rang after he said that. Kaoru picked up her bags and left the gym. She still had to find her dorm room. She didn't even know who her roommates were. He bags were already in her room, placed there by father. He had dropped them off as she had gone to the school building that morning. She was now wishing she had done it, even if she would've had to get up even earlier to do so. She had no idea why her parents had decided it was a good idea for her to go to boarding school. She just hoped that she would like her new roommates

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This is the edited first chapter of Youkai High. Edits include removing unnecessary details, fixing the flow, grammar corrections, giving a little more detail to the characters, correcting the order of the Japanese names, etc.

Translations:  
Youkai - demon (these would be the Inuyasha kind)  
Miko - priestess/sorceress  
Itachi - weasle  
Kitsune - fox  
Sensei - teacher  
Hebi - snake  
Inu - dog  
Tora - tiger

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	2. Dorm Climbing

Kaoru deflated. The dorms were as impressive as the school building. They were nearly as frightening, too. Kaoru walked into the girls' dorm. She pulled out her schedule that had her dorm room number listed at the top. There was a 3 next to the colon, and Kaoru pushed the number up button next to the elevator. The elevator dinged when it reached the ground floor, the doors opened, and she stepped in. She turned around to press the button marked three and heard, "Wait! Hold the door!" Misao came rushing into the elevator with her, even though she was in no danger of being left behind.

"Thanks, Kaoru," Misao said, smiling, "What floor?"

"Third," Kaoru told her as she pushed the correlating button and then the close doors button.

"Oh, I'm on that floor. What room?" Misao asked. The small youkai attempted to look over Kaoru's arm to see the information for herself.

"Uh…2," Kaoru answered then folded up her battered schedule and stuffed it into her back pocket.

"That's my room, too!" Misao shouted gleefully, "Megumi's going to be rooming with us. We haven't chosen beds yet 'cause we decided we would be fair to whoever was going to spend the rest of the year living with us."

Kaoru smiled, feeling relieved that at least she now had some idea of who she would be rooming with. "Well, that's good. Maybe this place won't be so bad."

Misao looked up at her with large, blue, innocuous eyes "What? You don't like it already?"

Kaoru shrugged. "No, I don't know anyone, and none of my friends are here. Not to mention that it's a boarding school," she answered, rolling her eyes. She didn't like the idea of living on campus, but her father had convinced her that it would be good for her to get some experience before going to university. She would've preferred to have stayed home.

"Yeah, I guess that is a pretty big difference," Misao admitted sullenly. The elevator dinged again, and they stepped off the elevator in tandem. They walked a few feet down the hall, stopping in front of a plain dark wood door emblazoned with the number two.

"I've got it," Misao said, returning to her more natural cheer. She pulled out a key and unlocked the door. Kaoru fingered her pockets to make sure that she had her key, which had been issued to her through the mail just over a week ago. She followed Misao inside, and shut the door behind herself. She faced the room and almost stubbed her foot against the pile of luggage by the door.

She studied the room she was going to be living in. The ceiling was high enough to fit in a bunk bed, and there was a dark navy carpet to contrast against the baby blue walls. There was a bunk bed, and a full bed against the opposite wall. All of the beds had matching wooden frames, while the couch at the foot of the full bed was all around a neutral shade of brown. There was a mounted television, several bureaus and a book shelf, and a walk in closet and a bath room right next to each other.

Megumi was sitting on the couch like an old stewardess tired of her charges. "As you can see, all our stuff is here, so all we have to do now is pick where we're going to sleep. I want the full bed," she stated, crossing her arms to make sure her pick wouldn't be challenged.

"I got top bunk then," Kaoru said, raising her hand. Misao looked back and forth between her two roommates appearing horribly confused. She looked down at the bottom bunk then.

"Bottom bunk for me, I guess," she sighed and her voice sounded mopey. She walked around to the edge of the bed and flopped down onto it. "At least it's comfy," she added as she tested her new bed.

"Are we going to pick dressers, too?" Kaoru asked, pointing at the dressers lining the wall beneath the television. They matched the bed frames and to Kaoru looked more like set props than real furniture.

"Sure," Megumi said, standing up and moving towards her luggage, "I'll take the one on the left."

"I'll take the middle!" Misao announced, but didn't get up from her bed.

"I'll take this one then," Kaoru said, knocking her foot against the dresser she was standing next to. Megumi dragged her bags over to her dresser, and Kaoru did the same. She unzipped her clothes suitcase first and began transferring all of her clothes into the drawers. She left everything that needed to be hanged in her suitcase before carting all of those clothes into the closet. After that, she pulled out her shoes and put them away in the closet and caught sight of the numerous pairs of shoes Megumi owned.

"Misao, are you going to put your stuff away?" Megumi asked once she'd finished.

"I'll do it later," she whined, rolling over onto her stomach.

"If you say so," Megumi said, leaving it at that.

"Ugh," Misao turned her head towards her roommates, "today was so exhausting."

"All first days are," Megumi pointed out as she pulled out a box from Misao's pile of luggage. She set it down beside the bookshelf.

"Can you believe we're in high school?" Kaoru asked, taking a seat on the floor and not feeling up to unpacking her toiletries just yet.

"Yeah, you're right," Misao said, suddenly springing into a kneeling position on her bed, "We're freshman now."

"Well, it was going to happen eventually," Megumi said. She was pulling books out of the cardboard box and placing them on the shelf. They were all at least an inch thick, and Kaoru thought some of them looked like medical textbooks.

"It's still kind of hard to wrap your mind around, though," Kaoru said, waving her hand at the room, "I'm still trying to just get used to the fact that I've been accepted into this school."

"Yeah, it's a little weird that they let you in cause there are hardly any miko here," Misao pointed out.

"What's the other miko like?" she asked.

"Not that great," Megumi answered, "I've heard a number of rumors about her. Even though she's dating a youkai, she's pretty antagonistic to youkai in general."

"Antagonistic?" Misao said, raising her eyebrows, "Where'd you even pull that word from?"

"The dictionary known as my mind," Megumi replied breezily, "one of my mind's many versatile uses."

Kaoru laughed at the matter of fact way in which Megumi described her brain. She felt a little better about coming here knowing who her roommates were. She was going to get to sleep on a top bunk, and make friends with new people. She listened to them as they continued to talk about teachers she had never heard of and students she didn't know. She didn't mind, and sat quietly thinking about what her freshman year would be like.

Across the court yard from the girls' dorm was an identical building for the male students. The difference between the buildings were namely the paint on the walls and the carpet on the floor. Battousai knew the boys' dorm well enough after having spent a school year living there. He had learned he was rooming with Yahiko this year along with Shishio and was walking up the stairs with them to their new dorm room on the second floor. "I've got dibs on the top bunk," he said as they reached the second floor landing.

"I get the full bed then," Shishio said as they entered the hallway.

"What?" Yahiko asked, "I don't want the bottom bunk."

"Snooze you lose," Battousai said teasingly, patting Yahiko once on the shoulder.

They stopped in front of room two. No one moved for the door. "Did anybody remember their keys?" Yahiko asked when they had stood their silently for a few seconds.

"I think mine are in my bag," Battousai said, and began digging through the side pockets of his bag, "Found it."

He unlocked the door and let his roommates in. The room was a light red color that clashed marvelously with his hair. The carpet almost seemed magenta in color, and he wondered what the last students living in the room had done to it to make it turn slightly purple. The beds were the same make as his last room, and so was everything else except luggage stacked in front of the dressers. The room color, he decided, was at least better than the previous year's peppy green.

"Where'd you two stick your keys?" he asked his new roommates as he ventured into the room. He checked out the closet and swore it was smaller than the one in his room last year.

"I left mine in my suitcase," Yahiko explained, opening an outside pocket and pulled out the key that would've been helpful not less than two minutes before.

"Good job," Battousai told him as he shut the closet door and then peered into the bathroom. This one had black and white checkerboard tiles.

"Hey, at least I didn't forget them," Yahiko pointed out as he put the key on top of one of the dressers.

"Where are yours, Shishio?" Battousai asked before slinging his bag onto his bed.

"With my cousin," he answered simply.

"Why does your cousin have them?" Yahiko asked pointedly.

"So he can make a copy," Shishio replied as he took a seat on the couch beneath their window.

"You're not gonna give Komagata a key to our room are you?" Battousai asked, already knowing the answer but needing to ask anyways.

"It's only for emergencies," he shrugged, not concerned at all about compromising his roommates' privacy.

"Fine," Battousai wasn't going to be able to convince him not to do it at this point, "just warn us when the 'emergencies' are going to happen."

Shishio smirked broadly, "Of course I will."

"That's going to be annoying," Yahiko commented to know one in particular. He pulled his suitcase off the top of the pile of luggage, and moved it to the foot of his bed. Battousai did the same and put his luggage against the wall by the ladder up to the top bunk. None of them felt like putting their clothes into their dressers as they probably should.

Battousai climbed up the ladder to the top bunk. "This bed is much nicer than last year's," he said as he lay down on it.

"They're worth the ugly carpet," Yahiko returned from beneath him. Shishio rolled his eyes and took a seat on the foot of his bed, and not bothering with even moving his things from in front of the dressers. None of them said anything else to each other and Yahiko pulled out his iPod.

"What'cha listening to, Yahiko?" Shishio asked.

"Back in Black."

"Hm," Shishio said, not judging the other youkai's music taste. He had better things to think about. "Battousai?" he asked, drawing him out of his thoughts.

"Yes?" Battousai asked and looked at him.

"Are you going to let that human stay?" he asked, well aware that Battousai would understand his meaning.

He frowned. "I'm not sure. Ultimately it still is Saitou's decision, but it will be hard for her to keep up with us. I must admit that she is good for what she is. Besides, if nothing else, we can watch her kick Yahiko's ass," he said seriously before turning his tone to a teasing one in the last sentence.

Yahiko heard the comment over the low volume of his iPod. "Hey, I wasn't prepared for her attacks!" Yahiko tried to defend himself, looking around the edge of Battousai's bed to make eye contact.

"No, you're just upset cause you were beat up by a girl," Shishio said.

"Am not!" he countered, indignant.

"Just a little bit," Battousai agreed.

"Whatever, I'd like to see you do better," Yahiko scowled and turned the volume up on his iPod.

"Back to the original topic," Shishio said as he turned his attention back to Battousai, "What do you think Saitou's going to do about the girl?"

"I don't know. Maekawa would have let her stay, but I don't think Saitou's as nice to humans as he is," Battousai said.

"How well do you know Saitou?" he asked, leaning forward and resting his hands on his knees.

"I don't know him at all. I haven't had any classes with him before," he shrugged.

"That's helpful," he commented.

Battousai glared at him, "It's not like you know him anymore than I do."

"We'll just have to wait and see then," he said, ending the conversation.

They sat silently for a long time, essentially doing nothing. There wasn't anything pressing to be done, and so they lazed with the little time they had before school really set in. "Yahiko, what are you listening to?" Battousai asked eventually ending the silence, he could pick up bits and pieces of the music floating out of Yahiko's headphones.

"I have no idea, some weird k-pop girl group," Yahiko answered as he began scrolling through his music.

Shishio snickered, "You listen to k-pop?"

"No, your pal Kamatari borrowed my iPod last week. He stuck all this random stuff on here," he retorted, pulling the headphones out in frustration.

"I forgot you lived by him," Battousai commented.

"Wish I could," Yahiko griped as he pulled out his laptop. He booted up the computer then opened iTunes. He plugged in his iPod, and started fixing his playlists. He spent maybe thirty seconds at it when there was a loud bang.

Shishio and Battousai both got off their respective beds to search for the source of the noise. "What was that?" Yahiko asked, sniffing the air and smelling acrid smoke.

Something had exploded remarkably close to where they were. He set down his laptop on the bed behind him, and stood as well. They heard coughing coming from the room above them. Then they heard a boy yelling "What the hell Katsu! Are you trying to kill me?"

"Apparently," Battousai muttered under his breath.

"Who wants to go tell them leave off the explosives?" Yahiko asked, rubbing his nose at the smell.

"I'll do it," Battousai said, walking towards the window.

"Where are you going? The door's that way," Shishio jerked his thumb towards the door in the opposite direction.

"So, window's faster," he shrugged continuing to the window.

Shishio rolled his eyes, but withheld his comments. Battousai unlocked then slid the window open. The smell became more pronounced, but there didn't seem to be any flames. He pulled himself onto the ledge, and shuffled to the edge of the window sill. He was easily able to dig his nails into the brick and pull himself upwards in a bizarre rock climbing motion. It didn't take him long to reach the window above theirs.

The room was filled with smoke. He tugged on the window, but it was locked. He didn't want to pay for a replacement, and knocked on the glass. He saw movement, and a guy with long black hair with a green head band type hair piece stepped out of the smoke. He was clearly a freshman, and he had soot marks on his face. "Sorry, I was just experimenting a little," he explained after opening the window, remarkable unsurprised to see someone clinging to the side of a building.

"No he was trying to kill me!" another freshman stepped out of the smoke, coughing and waving his hand in front of his face.

This one looked like a rooster but smelled like a bear. He was surprised for a moment to recognize who he was talking to, then frowned. "Just keep it down, otherwise they'll suspend you," Battousai warned.

Kaoru glanced out of the window, finally bored of the conversation her roommates were having between themselves. Her eyes widened at what she saw. "Oh my gods," she whispered as she hurriedly climbed down from her bed and ran over to the window.

"What's wrong Kaoru?" Misao asked as the girl crossed her line of sight.

"Look! There's a guy hanging on that wall," she said, pointing at the figure while looking back at Misao.

"What? No way," Misao said, rushing over to see if she was telling the truth. Megumi became curious as well and joined the gathering around the window. Kaoru was telling the truth as a boy was indeed on the side of the wall. He seemed to be on the small size, and somewhat familiar.

"Do you know who it is?" she asked when she couldn't think of a correlating name.

"Yeah, I think it's Battousai." Kaoru watched the figure.

"What's he doing?" Misao asked, pressing her nose against the glass.

"No idea," Megumi responded.

They watched as the window across from theirs was opened. Two boys appeared in the window. They recognized one of them. "That's Sano!" Misao exclaimed at the sight of her friend.

"What do you think happened?" Megumi questioned, crossing her arms.

"No idea," Kaoru said, and then put her hand on the window latch, "Want to ask him?"

"Yeah, let's do it," Misao said excitedly.

"Alright," Kaoru said, taking a breath then wrenching the window open, "Sagara! What did you do?"

Sano started, looked around for a moment, and then his eyes settled on her. "What did I do?!" he yelled back, "It was Katsu! He thought it would be funny to blow up our room!"

"Why would you let him do that?" she asked.

"I didn't let him. He set it off before I could stop him!" he shouted.

"Better be quicker next time!" Kaoru laughed then started to close the window, but thought of something, "Battousai, what are you doing on the side of the wall?"

Battousai shrugged. An amazing feat considering he was still holding on to Sano's window ledge. "He thinks it's faster than going up the stairs!" Yahiko yelled from the window below.

"Well, he's right this time Yahiko!" she yelled at him.

"Who cares what you think!" Yahiko growled.

Yahiko saw Kaoru shift. Then a shoe went flying towards him and nearly made it into the window. Shishio and Battousai laughed as Kaoru continued to glare at Yahiko. The girls were giggling as well. Sano and Katsu were trying really hard not to laugh. "What did I tell you about growling!" Kaoru yelled.

Yahiko bit his tongue to keep from yelling his head off at her. "Yahiko, you should be happy that it was only a shoe!" Battousai turned to Kaoru, "Anything else to throw Kamiya?"

"Unfortunately not," she was annoyed, but unwilling to rise to his surprisingly irritating bait

"Exactly which shoe did you throw at him?" Megumi asked quietly and subdued compared to all of their yelling.

"One of my sneakers," she said, suddenly regretting the decision to part with one of her possession, "Think I'll be able to get that back?"

"Not tonight," Megumi answered, "It's going to be curfew soon and you're definitely going to be caught if you leave."

"Goodnight Kamiya!" Battousai shouted after having climbed back into his own dorm room. He shut the window before she could say anything in response.

"Well aren't you polite tonight," Shishio quipped as he wandered back to his bed.

"Yeah, yeah," he responded, too lazy to think of something witty or sarcastic.

"Does anybody else fell tired?" Yahiko asked as he stretched.

Neither of his roommates answered, but they agreed. "Well, I'm going to make my bed and then go to bed," Yahiko announced, pulling out his plain bed sheets from one of his bags.

Battousai nodded, and both he and Shishio transformed their mattresses into beds along with Yahiko. They pulled of their day clothes and put on pajamas, not caring who saw what. They flicked out the lights and in a few minutes had crawled into bed and settled into sleep. They weren't the only ones, and within fifteen minutes all but a few dorm lights were out.

A few hours later, around midnight, Battousai woke up. He didn't remember having any dreams so he dismissed it as a reason for waking. He looked around the room as best he could in light of the moon. Yahiko and Shishio were both asleep, and he swore he could hear Yahiko snoring softly. He should've been sleeping to, and was annoyed that he was not.

He didn't feel particularly tired at the moment and decided to crawl out of bed. He tip toed over to the window, aware of how acute youkai hearing was. He settled himself on the couch in his usual fashion. He often watched the stars when he couldn't sleep. He had learned the technique when he was young, and hadn't forgotten it since. There wasn't complete cloud cover, but there were enough clouds to block out a number of the stars.

Battousai let his gaze wander. Across the courtyard one level up, Kamiya sat in the window. The moonlight made her look almost ethereal, and borderline bizarrely pale. She looked rather miserable, silently and awkwardly balanced on the window sill. She must be homesick, he thought as he watched her. Battousai sighed, and went back to bed. Watching people wallow in self pity was not something he was inclined to do. Battousai fell asleep, and this time he stayed asleep until the alarm clock rang.

* * *

There were a number of major changes to this chapter, and I cut out a lot of silliness and added more details to the characters' interactions with each other. Hopefully you have enjoyed this chapter, and will continue to read the rest of this story.

Please review!


	3. Hello

I'm a little sad that this chapter's now around 2K words shorter, but overall it's much better than it was before.

* * *

"Kaoru,"

A groan was the only thing to be heard from the top bunk on the third floor room 2. "C'mon Kaoru you can't stay in bed all day,"

The lump under the covers was poked again.

"Leave her alone Misao, if she doesn't wake up she can be late by herself," Megumi admonished as she poked her head out of the bathroom.

Suddenly, the lump sat up "Wait, what time is it?"

Misao looked down at the clock. "Kaoru, we have about forty five minutes still until homeroom. You should be okay," she assured her as turned back to Kaoru.

"Mkay," she replied, sounding half awake. She ran a hand through her hair, and her fingers became caught in all the tangles. She realized she had forgotten to braid her hair the night before, and allowed it to become a snarled mess. She sighed at her self-caused misfortune, but forced her body from the warmth and comfort of her bed.

She climbed down cautiously from her bunk, and picked up a small travel case. This particular travel case held basically everything and anything Kaoru could need short of clothes and bed linens. Her dad had thought that it was unnecessary and she should have just stuffed all of her belongings into a single suitcase. Kaoru wasn't the girliest girl in the world, but she could in no conceivable way fit everything she felt she needed into a single suitcase.

Kaoru considered pulling out just what she needed from her bag, but decided against taking the extra effort. "Hey, Megumi, when're you going to be done?" Kaoru called out halfheartedly and sounded half dead.

"Um, not too long I'll be out in a second," Megumi called back, her vibrant tone was close to being painful for Kaoru's sleep addled brain to listen to.

Kaoru glanced at Misao, who was innocently standing beside her doing absolutely nothing. "When're you getting ready?" Kaoru asked, confused.

"Oh, I woke up really early to day for some reason. It was really weird. I almost never get up early," Misao confessed easily and spoke quickly.

"Oh, we're going to need a second bathroom," Kaoru muttered. She pulled out clothes for the day, and draped them over her arm. She hauled her little travel bag and her clothes over to the bathroom door.

"Or we could coordinate schedules, and one of us could take showers at night," Megumi suggested. She exited the bathroom looking perfectly prepared to face the school day.

"I need to take my showers in the morning," Kaoru said, pointing to her unkempt hair.

"It was just a suggestion," Megumi said with a shrug, "Doesn't matter right now anyways. If you're quick enough this morning we can all leave together and get to homeroom on time."

"Oh yes, your perfect attendance record," Kaoru stated dryly as she walked into the bathroom, "wouldn't want to mess with that."

Misao giggled from across the room, and received a glare from Megumi. Kaoru shut the door and locked it before she could hear any of the conversation her roommates were about to start. She turned around and walked over to the sink. Nearly every inch of the counter was covered with bottles, tubes, and brushes. She didn't know half of what they were for, and sincerely hoped it wasn't all Megumi's.

She set her bag down on the floor, just beneath the sink as it wouldn't fit on the counter. She set her clothes on the lid of the toilet after checking that it was clean, and pulled out everything she needed to shower with one by one, and loaded them all onto her left arm. She pulled open the shower curtain and noticed that someone had already set up hanging shelves. The top two shelves were already filled with items similar to what Kaoru was holding. She attempted to shove everything into her arms directly onto the bottom shelf, but about half spilled onto the floor.

Once she had righted all of her belongings, she stripped off her pajamas and started the shower. Kaoru tested the water before stepping in. Around twenty minutes later, she emerged from the bathroom nearly ready for the day. She was completely clean and dressed, but had to hunt around for a hair band, socks, and shoes once she remembered that she had thrown half a pair out of the window the night before. She rushed around as Megumi and Misao waited patiently beside the door. She was ready to go, and was pulling on her back pack with around a minute to spare.

"Are you gonna put your pin on?" Misao asked as they left their room. There were other girls down the hall leaving their rooms as well. Kaoru had been looking amongst them to see if she recognized any of them from her classes.

"Pin? What pin?" Kaoru asked after reminding herself what Misao's question was.

"The one the school gave you to put on your back pack," she answered, receiving a blank stare, "The one with the school crest, came in the mail with your key?"

"Yeah, I saw it. I wasn't going to," she said, grabbing the hand rail as Megumi led them down the stairs instead of to the elevator, "Why, do I need to?"

"I don't think they can force you, but the reason we have them is because the school administration was pretty much like your kids won't have to wear uniforms as long as they got this pin on 'em," Misao explained, making talking motions with her hands when she mention the administration.

"Well," Kaoru said as they passed the second floor landing, "I like not having the uniform so I guess I can put it on later."

"It must be really weird for you to have to get used to all of this stuff," she commented.

"It is," she adjusted the straps of her bag, "When we found out that school didn't have a uniform we had to go out a buy me some more clothes so I would have enough to wear every day of the week."

"So you got like a new wardrobe?" Misao asked, dodging around a chair on the main floor that was a little too close to being in their path, "Lucky, I only got like one new shirt and a pair of jeans."

"Yeah, though it is a pain to try on everything," Kaoru admitted with a shrug.

"Hurry it up, slow pokes!" Megumi called out to them from roughly ten feet in front of them.

The two girls jogged for a few seconds to catch up with their power walking roommate.

"One thing's for sure," Misao announced cheerfully, "we won't ever be late with Megumi as our roommate!"

"Yeah, and you'll also make it to bed on time," Megumi commented with an edge to her tone.

"That's only a problem on Sunday nights," she whined.

"But not anymore," she pointed out cheerfully, almost skipping into her next step.

Kaoru sighed hoping that this regular sleep schedule would help her as well. As they neared the school, they noticed that there was a small crowd gathered by the entrance. "What do you think's happening?" Kaoru asked once they reached the outskirts of the crowd.

"No idea," Megumi answered, searching the gathered students for a familiar face that would have answers.

"There's Sano!" Misao shouted, pointing at the unique hair style that stuck up above the crowd.

"Let's go," Megumi said as she weaved her wave through the youkai to Sano. Kaoru and Misao stuck close behind her.

"Sano, what's going on?" Megumi asked, tapping him on the shouler.

"Huh?" he looked down at her and away from whatever he'd been watching, "Someone tied a shoe to the weather vane at the top. Look."

He pointed up. There was a shoe dangling over the edge of the roof with its laces tied to the pole of the weather vane. Kaoru recognized it. "That's my shoe!"

"The one you chucked at Myojin Yahiko?" Sano asked, studying the shoe now.

"Yeah, it has to be," Kaoru confirmed.

"Do you think he tied it up there?" Misao asked.

"Why would he do that?" Kaoru asked, sounding as irritated as she felt.

"To get back at you?" she suggested, "You were kind of mean to him."

"I have an aggressive personality type," she defended, frowning.

"Do you treat all boys like that?" Sano asked, joining in.

"Sometimes," she shrugged, "my guy friends are all used to it. I mean, he was kind of mean, too."

"Still," Sano made an iffy gesture with his hand, "you probably shouldn't piss off a pure youkai."

"Alright, that's great advice and all, but what about getting my shoe back?" she asked, swinging her hand up towards the roof.

"We don't have time right now," Megumi said. She was looking at the time on her wrist watch, "We have just enough time to make it to homeroom on time."

"So what, just leave it there?" Kaoru asked as Megumi began marshaling the group through the crowd to the doors.

"A janitor might get it down while we're in school," Misao said to assure her.

"Is there a lost and found or something?" she asked, ducking under someone's arm as they went up the steps.

"Yeah, by the main office," Sano said as he held the door open for the girls.

"Thanks," Megumi said politely. Sano nodded in acknowledgement, and let the door swing closed behind them.

"Where's that?" Kaoru asked. They turned down the hall to Saitou's classroom. There weren't as many students inside as there were outside. Some of them were bound to be late.

"We'll show you after school," Misao offered kindly.

"Alright," she said, nodding.

"See? No biggie," Sano said then pulled open the door to their home room. Saitou didn't glance up from what he was reading at his desk as they entered. They took their seats without saying another word.

"Kamiya," Saitou said without warning and while still reading whatever was on his desk, "If you would please,"

He motioned for her to come forward. Her new friends and roommates gave her sympathetic looks, but they didn't know any more than she did. She stood up, leaving her bag at her desk, and walked to the front of the classroom. She was grateful that her shoes had distracted most of the students into staying outside.

"Yesterday," he began with barely a hint of annoyance, "you neglected to take the schedule for kendo practice with you. As you should know, we have even and odd classes so you do not have P.E. everyday with me, but you do have practice everyday with me. Here is your schedule."

He held out a sheet of paper to her. She took it from him, and waited for him to add anything. He said nothing, but looked up when she was still standing there. "There's no reason for you to hang over my shoulder, Kamiya," he said calmly, almost glaring at her, "Go back to your seat."

"Okay," she whispered under her breath, and turned around and went straight to her seat.

"What did he want?" Misao asked, leaning her upper body onto Kaoru's desk.

"He gave me a practice schedule," she said, waving it, once briefly, before her face.

"What for?" Misao asked, still trying to read the page over her shoulder.

"For kendo," she said simply.

"Oh," she sounded as uninterested as she was.

Most of their classmates made it to their seats as the first bell rang. Saitou only handed out only two warnings. He instructed everyone to either work quietly, or be silent. When the bell rang to end homeroom, everyone scrambled from their seats. After leaving homeroom, Kaoru double checked her class schedule. She wasn't talented enough to read something and walk in a crowd hallway at the same time and not get hit. She bumped into one out of every five people she passed. As expected, she eventually collided into someone head on. "Watch it Kamiya," they growled.

Kaoru looked up, muttered a hasty sorry to a pissed Shishio, and darted away. She decided to play it safe for the rest of her trek to her first period class. She was easily able to avoid bumping into anymore grumpy juniors with unblocked vision. After entering Mikata-sensei's classroom, Kaoru easily found her assigned seat and pulled out her folder for the class. The bell rang again. Mikata-sensei stood up, "Settle down class, settle down."

Mikata-sensei was an old youkai, balding and with white hair. Kaoru wasn't even in the room for five minutes before she learned that the student body's polite opinion was that he should retire. The other half was betting on when he would drop dead. "Today we are going to read a short story, and discuss its theme as a class afterwards. It should be on…page 86,"

Students weren't allowed to take the textbooks out of the classroom, and the textbooks were all stacked on the wide window sill. The students all had to get up and grab themselves a book, or tell a friend to get one for them. Kaoru suffered silently in the line for the textbooks. She was last in line, and last back to her seat. She opened to page 86, double checked the title that was written on the board, and began reading. The near silence of the classroom was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Ah, Keitoku-san, could you open the door?" Mikata asked.

The boy who had the unfortunate luck of being placed by the door stood, rounded his desk, and pushed open the door. A tall lady wearing a kimono walked into the room, leaving Keitoku to shut the door behind them.

"Hello, Mikata-san," she greeted as she walked up to his desk. Her voice had the texture of honey, and didn't quite match the image she presented.

"Majushinpi-san, what brings you to my class?" Mikata-sensei smiling cheerfully at the woman. He looked almost exactly like one of Kaoru's friend's grandfather.

"I'm sorry for disturbing your class Mikata-san, but one of my students did not receive my class schedule," the lady, Majushinpi-san, said "and did not come to my class,"

"You have another one?" Mikata-sensei asked, and began searching around on his desk.

"Yes," she answered politely, "I heard, only by chance, that I would have another student this year. When I went to this school's secretary, she told me that her teachers hadn't been told that she was one of mine. I even checked the P.E. archery class yesterday and didn't see her, so I haven't even talked with my new student yet, and had to spend half of my class time to find out which class she was in."

Kaoru was ignoring the lady, trying to get her work done as fast as possible. She didn't care or know whoever had gotten stuck in the talking kimono lady's class.

"She's in my class?" Mikata asked.

"Yes," Majushinpi nodded.

"Who is she?"

"I believe her name is Kamiya Kaoru," the woman said loudly and clearly.

Kaoru's head snapped up as she heard the mention of her name. Every single person in the room was staring at her. "Ah, there you are," Majushinpi said, gesturing towards her.

"Yes?" Kaoru asked.

"Well, come along. You're in the wrong class. You are a miko, aren't you?" she asked, tucking her hands into the sleeves of her kimono.

Kaoru nodded wordlessly. "You have lessons with me today this period," she said, "Did they not tell you?"

"No, no one told me anything," she said, shaking her head.

"That is certainly a problem. I can talk to the secretary about that later. Right now, we have to go before wasting any more class time," she said.

Kaoru sat silently for a moment before realizing that Majushinpi was waiting for her. She sprang into action, sliding her folder back into her bag and returning the damaged textbook back to its pile on the window sill. She walked around all of the desks and stood beside her new teacher. She turned to Mikata, "I'm sorry for interrupting your class. Kamiya will return tomorrow."

"It's fine," Mikata said, waving away her concern, "Good luck, Kamiya."

Kaoru absent mindedly nodded, following Majushinpi out of the door. "I'm sorry for the confusion," Majushinpi said, "this school hasn't had a new miko student in a number of years. They have a few administrative troubles with that. Do you have any questions?"

"Yes," Kaoru said immediately, taking a breath before asking, "What class do you teach, exactly?"

"I teach all of the miko students the skills they need to be successful outside of academics. There are only two of you, and not enough to really create a class for you. Instead, you're pulled out of class once a day, but for different periods. You'll have to check in with your teachers afterwards to make sure you're completing all of your work and keeping your grades up."

"That sounds really complicated," Kaoru said.

"I assure it's not once you get used to it," she said, "It helps if you have the schedule though. I think I have an extra copy somewhere."

Majushinpi stopped before a door, and Kaoru almost ran into her. "Here we are," she announced, "Kamiya-san, are you ready to meet my other student?"

"Yeah, sure," Kaoru nodded.

Majushinpi-sensei turned the door knob and opened the door, "You may proceed."

* * *

"Hm," Megumi hummed as she thought, tapping her eraser on her paper.

"Hm, what?"

Megumi turned around to find Misao standing behind her chair looking curious.

"Sit down, and I'll tell you," Megumi pointed to the free seat next to her. The class was grouping up to work on a simple introductory assignment. Megumi preferred to work by herself, and hadn't gotten up. Misao had noticed and had decided to partner up with her whether she liked it or not.

Misao sat down, and asked, "What's up?"

"Well, as you know I usually do, I was listening in on some gossip…"

"Get to the point Megumi," Misao demanded. She was one for talking, but she wanted to start out right with her teachers this year. Gossiping wasn't going to help her maintain a good impression.

"Fine," Megumi said, rolling her eyes, "As I was saying I overheard something of interest."

"Megumi!" she snapped, not patient for games. She was beginning to write down the answer to the first question.

"Alright, alright. I heard that Kaoru was taken from her first period class by Majushinpi-sama," Megumi said, also writing down an answer, but one different from Misao's.

"Majushinpi-sama?" she asked, wondering where she had heard the name from.

"The miko the school hired as a teacher for the miko students," she explained impatiently.

"Oh yeah," Misao said, thinking of the few times she had seen the woman before, "she's kind of scary. She could probably take us all out if she wanted to."

"I don't think so, the pure youkai might be difficult for her," Megumi said objectively.

"Megumi, the only one she would really have any trouble with would be Battousai," she argued.

"Shishio is pretty strong as well," she pointed out.

"I guess so, but I think Majushinpi-sama has still got more skill,"

"Perhaps, but she doesn't have their level of strength,"

"Well, what if she had Kaoru for back up?" Misao asked, scribbling down an answer on her paper.

"I don't know how good Kaoru is. She might not have any formal training," Megumi glanced over at Misao's paper, "You're wrong."

"I am?" she asked, leaning to read Megumi's paper, "Kaoru knows kendo though."

"I don't think miko powers and kendo go together that well," she said then added, "Now, you're right."

"Ok, cool," Misao said finishing up the last few words of her answer, "Majushinpi-sama can back her up with archery though."

"True, but I still think it would be hard for all three of them to defeat all of us," Megumi said, moving on to the next question they also weren't discussing.

"They could probably do it all sneaky and ninja-like one by one," she said then looked up at her partner, "Wait, are we rooting for them to kill us all?"

"No, just you," Megumi said, finished with the third question.

"Makimachi-san, Takani-san, focus on your work!"

"Yes, sensei!" they shouted in unison, ending their side discussion.

* * *

Please review!


	4. Testing

Kaoru stepped cautiously into Majushinpi's classroom. It looked like left over space with peeling paint in the corners, only four desks, and about half the size of the regular classrooms. There was a chalkboard on one wall, and no other decorations on the plain off-white walls aside from the windows. There were two students inside. The first Kaoru recognized instantly by his red hair, even if he was staring off into space. Battousai gave her a short wave in greeting, almost a military salute. The other was a girl at least a year older than herself who she didn't recognize. She had black hair up in a bun, a vibrant scarlet shirt that just fit into dress code, and skin tight black jeans.

"Oh, I forgot to mention," Majushinpi said, noticing Battousai sitting with her student, "I wanted to test you a little. Himura-san is my little volunteer. I hope you don't mind."

"Um, no, that's fine," Kaoru said weakly. She was untested against youkai aside from the day before with Yahiko, and to be honest she didn't think that Yahiko had really been trying. She calmed herself with the hope that Majushinpi wouldn't try and test her with something to impossible.

"Kamiya-san, this is your classmate and fellow miko, Komagata Yumi," Majushinpi said, walking over and gracefully waving her arm towards the other girl, "Komagata-san, this is Kamiya Kaoru."

"Pleased to meet you," the girl responded, nodding her head but not getting out of her seat.

"Nice to meet you, too," Kaoru replied politely, bobbing her head quickly.

"Himura-san, do you know Kamiya-san?" Majushinpi asked.

"Yes, I talked with her some yesterday," Battousai answered, only glancing at Kaoru once during his response.

"Oh, how did you two meet?" she asked.

"We're both in kendo," he replied with a shrug.

"Kendo," Majushinpi commented, turning towards Kaoru, "how…unusual."

Kaoru swallowed down a feeling of dread and tried not to feel too judged or offended. She didn't see what was wrong with learning kendo. She enjoyed it regardless of whether or not she was a miko.

"That's unimportant with what we need to do today," Majushipi said, straightening and losing her contemplative look, "I'm familiar with Komagata-san's abilities, but not yours. What do you think you are particularly good at?"

"I'm good with shields," Kaoru answered, just shying of phrasing her response as a question.

"What about purification?" Majushinpi inquired.

"I haven't ever really gotten a chance to purify anything. There aren't any youkai living in my area," Kaoru explained. There was no one within her city's limits that was over fifteen percent youkai. There simply wasn't any youki around to attempt purification. Her father, who had been her teacher, hadn't thought it worth teaching her.

"We'll have to work on that. Do you know any wards?" she asked.

"I learned a few of the really simple ones," she said, knowing it wouldn't impress anyone. She would've asked her father to increase his teaching pace if she had known she'd be questioned like this.

"Let's start with shielding then," Majushinpi said, she walked a few steps away then turned back to Kaoru, "If you will, please create a shield and we'll see what it takes for Himura-san to break it."

"Alright," she said, nodding. She easily created a spherical shield around herself. She watched Battousai, waiting for his move.

"Wait a moment," Majushinpi said, gesturing for Battousai to stand down, "Your shield is blue. Do you know why that is?"

"No," Kaoru answered, wondering if something was wrong. Maybe her shields had always had a malfunction. She cleared her throat, "My father's shields are the same color."

"How peculiar," Majushinpi mused, tapping a finger against her chin, "Please, continue."

Battousai stood up from his desk and approached Kaoru's shield. He placed his hand on the shield, and Kaoru was unable to tell if he was applying pressure or not. After a few moments, he began to release youki from his palm. It curled like smoke and hissed like acid beneath his fingers. It didn't cause any adverse effects and her shield held. He pulled his hand away, and Kaoru jumped when his fist collided with her shield.

She had to calm herself down and convince herself that her shield would hold. Battousai didn't punch her shield again, as not even a crack had appeared. He ripped his claws across the same section, successfully causing marks even if they were shallow. He then plunged his hand through her shield using the tips of his claws to pierce rather than his fist to bludgeon. His fingertips came dangerously close to her face.

"Rather impressive," Majushinpi commented as Battousai withdrew his hand. He had broken her shield, but only a section large enough for his arm to fit through. It hadn't caused the shield to shatter.

Kaoru raised her hand and made a slight wave motion. The shield responded to her command, and it repaired the hole as if a hand had smoothed the material over. Battousai smirked, looking a little impressed despite himself.

"It's very interesting," Majushinpi said, stepping forward to tap the shield and examine it, "Your shield has purification abilities, but you've never purified any youki before."

"Aren't shields supposed to do that?" Kaoru asked.

"No, their purpose is to divert the youki rather than purify is. It's not enough to burn youkai skin, it seems, but can burn away youki itself," Majushinpi explained, drawing away and folding her hands back into her kimono sleeves, "There are different styles of teaching, however. Perhaps your father was taught differently than I was. You shield certainly doesn't need any more work at this point."

The bell rang. Majushinpi sighed, "I'll give you my class schedule and we can continue tomorrow."

Kaoru dropped her shield and left the classroom with Komagata and Himura following her.

"Himura-san," Majushinpi called as the youkai was about to leave the room.

He stopped and turned back to her. He crossed his arms, waiting impatiently for her to speak. She scowled at him, familiar with sight of an annoyed student's posture. "I want you to keep her out of it," she said simply.

Battousai pulled a confused expression. She rolled her eyes, "You know full well what I'm talking about. Don't act innocent."

"You know I can't do that," Battousai told her, frowning.

She glared at him, "I'm sure you can find a way."

"You know the rules," he argued.

"They're very bendable, I know," she said, smiling now that she knew she had the upper hand, "Just keep her from finding out, and everything will be fine."

"It's not that simple, or easy," he growled, turning away to end the conversation.

"Himura-san," she said, stopping him for the moment, "you are in a position of authority. All you have to do is spread the word."

He hissed at her as he left, not caring if it was disrespectful. He would follow her orders.

Kaoru fidgeted. There was only a minute left until the end of the period and the beginning of lunch. She wanted to make sure she would be able to get a seat with her roommates, or maybe Sano. She didn't know anyone else in her grade, and she didn't want to be left sitting alone. Kaoru was mentally begging the clock so she wouldn't have to listen to the sound of her teacher's voice. It was a drill being forced through her ear canal. The bell rang. Kaoru shot up out of her seat, and was out of the classroom before anyone else.

Kaoru weaved in out of the traveling packs of students, trying to get to the cafeteria before a line for the food began. She was easily able to grab her lunch and scout the cafeteria for Misao or Megumi. Misa spotted her first, "Kaoru! Over here!"

Kaoru caught sight of the short girl's waving arm, and walked over to where she was sitting. Misao patted the part of the table that was in front of the seat next to her, indicating tht she should sit there. She set her tray down where Misao had requested, and took her seat.

"How was you morning?" Misao asked before taking a bite of her meal.

"It was fine, I guess," she replied then ate a mouthful of her food.

"Hello, hello," Megumi greeted as she took the seat on Misao's other side. She took a quick bite then said, "Kaoru, I heard you were pulled out of first period by Majushinpi-sama."

Kaoru looked at her questioningly, wondering where she had gotten her information from, and then nodded, "Yeah, Majushinpi-sensei pulled me out of class."

"So, what happened?" Misao asked through a mouthful of sandwich.

"Well, she introduced me to the other student, um, Komagata something," she said, trying to remember the other girl's full name, "I didn't really get to talk to her much.

Both youkai girls coughed at the mention of the other student, but didn't say anything, allowing for an awkward silence. "What's with the gloomy faces?" Sano asked as he joined them, setting down his own tray.

"Kaoru's in a class with Komagata-senpai," Misao answered immediately, pointing at Kaoru.

"Oh right, you're both miko," Sano said and took a bite of food and continued to talk despite his mouth being full, "Tough luck there."

"So what happened?" Misao asked, leaning in towards her.

"Majushinpi-sensei just wanted to test my abilities. She asked me to make a shield and see how well it could hold up. Battousai punched through it pretty easily, but she said it was okay," she described.

"Battousai was there?" Megumi asked, having not heard that.

"Yeah, Majushinpi-sensei said he volunteered to test me," she replied, now having finished about half of her food.

"He either wanted to test you himself, likes you, or Majushinpi-sama volunteered him," she mused, tapping her fork against the top layer of lettuce of her salad as she thought about it.

"It's probably the last one, unless he just wanted to get out of class," Kaoru said to add her input.

"That is a possibility," she agreed.

"I think it's the first one," Sano said, "it sounds like something he would do."

"Maybe, but who knows," Misao said before switching topics.

Battousai stared at the pencil in his hand. He was thinking about how to fulfill Majushinpi's request. It was hard to keep secrets locked tight, especially if Kamiya knew anyone who knew the secret. He wasn't coming up with any spectacular ideas, and it was disheartening. He sighed and slouched further into his seat.

"What's the answer to number three?" Yahiko whispered to him, poking him in the shoulder with his pencil.

"What?" he asked turning around in his chair. He hadn't properly listened to the question, lost in his thoughts.

"What's the answer to number three?" he repeated.

He turned to his paper and realized that he hadn't gotten past number one. "No idea," he answered, facing Yahiko again.

"What have you been doing this whole time then?" Yahiko asked.

"Thinking," he answered honestly.

"About what?" he asked, leaning forward more.

"Majushinpi-sensei asked me to keep the freshman out," he explained and rubbed his temple.

"Which freshman?" he asked, pulling a confused face.

"Which one do you think?" he snapped, glaring at Yahiko for a moment.

Yahiko took a breath, and opened his mouth to answer, but decided to close it before he said something stupid. Yahiko actually thought about the question Battousai had asked. "Kamiya," he answered slowly, and continued when he received a nod from him, "What's so special about her?"

"I don't know, but it might be that she's not special," he answered, "the freshman can't even purify youki, and I doubt she'd be able to physically fight on our level."

Yahiko said nothing in an attempt to keep yesterday from coming up as a topic. "Well, she has some skills in sparring, but I don't think she'll last in a proper fight. Don't you agree, Yahiko?" he said with tone Yahiko knew he used when he was teasing someone.

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled sounding annoyed.

He chuckled quietly, making sure to muffle the sound with his hand so their teacher wouldn't notice. "It's seriously not that funny," Yahiko whispered harshly at him.

"I kid, I kid," he replied, calming his laughter and removing his hand.

"Anyways, what are you gonna do?" he asked, returning to the topic they should've been focusing on.

"Well, I can't not do what Majushinpi-sensei asks," Battousai said, serious tone recovered, "It's the how that's the problem."

"Well, I can help you out. I mean, I'm not doing much this year," he suggested, partially because he wanted to help out his roommate, and partly because he really would need something to do to occupy his time.

"That'd be great, actually," he said, "I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens."

"Okay," Yahiko agreed, and then asked, "So, what's the answer to number 3?"

The bell rang, as he began laughing at Battousai's expression. Battousai rolled his eyes and gathered his things as Yahiko swept passed him, still laughing. He followed him out, walking slowly and barely lifting his feet. He usually walked about as if he were weighed down by his thoughts, even if he was thinking of nothing in particular. It would be a delicate task to fulfill Majushinpi's request, even if it was a major pain in the neck. He at least had that afternoon's practice to look forward to.

Kaoru walked with roommates back to the girls' dorm. When they reached their room, she let her backpack fall off her shoulders and land leadenly in the center of the floor. "Don't do that," Megumi chided, "People live beneath us."

"They'll survive," she retorted sharply.

"Somethin' wrong, Kaoru?" Misao asked, obnoxiously cheerful about it.

"Kendo," Kaoru said miserably.

"Why, I thought you liked it?" Megumi asked. She was in the middle of pulling out her notebooks and folders to do her homework.

"I do. I just don't like the people in it," Kaoru sighed, disappointed with her current lot in life.

"I don't understand why you take those specialized gym classes," Megumi told them, "You get so sweaty in those classes, how can you stand it?"

"How?" Misao asked, full of bravado, and then struck a manly pose, "by not being super girly girls."

Megumi groaned, letting her head fall backwards. She, personally, could not stand physical activity. She hated running around, and she despised being sweaty. She would rather be smart, and clean, over strong and sweaty any day. She lived out her belief and preferences daily. "I am quite happy with doing nothing in gym," Megumi sniffed, pointing her nose upwards.

"Whatever makes you happy, Megumi," Kaoru told her.

"Hey, Misao?" Kaoru asked tiredly, turning around to face the other girl.

"What?" Misao asked, not getting up from where she had taken residence on her bed.

"What specialized gym class do you take?"

Misao turned her face towards her slowly. Kaoru and Megumi winced slightly when they saw her eyes. Misao's eyes were big, sparkling, and quite frankly just a little scary. "I take the ninja class with Aoshi-sama!" Misao crowed before placing her hands over her cheeks and twisting her head from side to side.

Kaoru looked to Megumi, knowing Misao wouldn't give her a straight answer, "Who?"

"He's a senior, pretty aloof for someone coming to school here. And for some odd reason, Misao likes him, lots," Megumi explained, sighing a little at who her friend had to fall for.

"Oh," she said, making a face at the new information. They ignored Misao as she continued to spout random tidbits about her crush.

"Do I even have time to do anything before I have to leave?" she asked, looking to the clock for the information she needed. She didn't.

"Oi, ugly! Grab your stuff, and head to the gym already. You don't want to be late do ya?"

All three girls jumped at the shout. It at least quieted Misao for a moment. Yahiko was sitting on the window sill, having opened the window to yell at the human, and was impatiently waiting for her.

"Get out, and I will," Kaoru answered through gritted teeth.

Yahiko shrugged, and jumped down from the window. She stomped over to the window, and slammed it shut. "We have the worst location ever!" she growled.

Kaoru stomped back over to the other side of the room. She viciously yanked opened the top drawer of her dresser, and pulled out her gi and hakama. Then she went into the closet to grab her bokken from where she had stashed it from the night before. She grabbed the last few tidbits she needed and plodded out of the room, and kindly enough didn't slam the door behind herself.

Kaoru walked stubbornly and resolutely to the gym. She made it about five minutes early. She became even more agitated when she saw that, even though she was a little bit early, everyone else was already there. They took this team and after school practice very seriously, clearly. She walked in and stood a few good feet away from the clutter of boys in the center of the room. Saito stood a few feet away from the group and even farther from Kaoru. He held a stack of paper. "Thank you for joining us Kamiya-san. I was just about to pass out locker assignments," he told her.

Saito began calling out names. As he was doing so Kaoru searched the walls for the door to the girl's locker room. It was on the far end of the gym. She waited as she watched the group of boys steadily shrink as they left to change. She was soon left standing alone. "Kamiya," Saito said, holding out her sheet with her locker number and its combination.

Kaoru rolled her eyes, and took the sheet of paper from him. She walked off in the opposite direction the boys had taken. She opened the door, and stepped cautiously inside, not sure what to expect. The locker room was small but neat and surprisingly clean. It was also unfortunately entirely painted yellow, even the locker dials.

There were only about twenty, maybe thirty lockers in the room, and two benches. Apparently, kendo hadn't ever been popular among girls. That or the gym had been given to whichever sports group had the fewest number of girls currently. Kaoru read the sheet Saito had given her. She had the first locker, which made sense. It was right next to the door. She wasn't comfortable with being so close to the door where there was a chance of being seen, but she could argue with Saitou about it if it became too much. She set her things down on the nearer of the two benches, and began to change as fast as she could. Kaoru stuffed her day clothes into the locker, and then closed the locker and grabbed her bokken. She left the locker room.

Apparently, changing as fast as she could wasn't quick enough. Everyone was waiting for her, and everyone was staring at her. She felt self-conscious, but made her way towards the some-what center of the room. She kept her distance from all of the male youkai in the room. Saito frowned down upon her. "What took you so long Kamiya-san?" he asked her coldly.

"Girl thing?" Kaoru answered with a questioning lilt to her response. She hoped that would be enough for Saitou to let her slide.

"If it takes that long, come earlier to practice," he responded, not asking for specifics.

She was grateful for that, and it looked like the boys in her class wouldn't be asking about it either.

"Kamiya-san, what is the significance of the bokken you're holding?" Saito asked in his usual authoritative tone.

"It's a gift from my father," she answered.

Before Saitou could say anything else, the door to the gym was flung open hard enough for it to smack against the wall. An unfamiliar and incredibly tall boy ran into the room. "Saito-sensei, Hibanakaui-san lit the gym on fire again!" he yelled to the teacher, not pausing for a moment to take a breath.

Saito glared at his class "Behave," He warned them before following the boy to the other gym.

There was complete silence in the gym. No one said anything as the boys began to move about the room. They were slowly encircling Kaoru, but she stood her ground and kept her expression blank. Some of the eyes studying her were contemplative, some mischievous, and some appeared feline in their intensity. Battousai was the only to properly come up to her.

He was not much taller than her, she barely had to raise her head to look him in the eye, but the authority he carried amongst the others towered stories above her. He titled his head to the side, and it reminded Kaoru of something a dog would do. "How long?" he asked, reaching his foot forward to tap the bokken she had braced on the floor with his toes.

She knew exactly what he meant by the question. "For as long as I can remember," she answered.

"School standard?" he asked, referring to the kendo style that was taught by virtually all schools in the country.

"No," she answered, shaking her head.

His eyebrow twitched upwards for a moment. "Which then?" he asked, returning his head to an upright position.

"My family's," she answered, glaring at a boy as she felt he had come too close.

"Haven't heard of it," he told her, crossing his arms.

"It's not popular, but it's good," she informed him, allowing just a little bit of haughtiness enter her tone.

If a smile could be a laugh, he was guffawing. His smile showed off his fangs, and she remembered what she was dealing with. She would do her best to keep her head down after this. He suddenly snapped his head to the side, glaring at the boys that were still gathered and watching the two of them, "Back off! Quit acting like a bunch of vultures!"

"But this is the most entertaining thing that's happening," Shishio said smoothly, stepping out of the group towards Battousai. He placed his forearm on the other student's shoulder in a friendly manner. Battousai easily rolled his arm off and flashed him an annoyed glance.

"What's all this?" Saitou asked as he returned to the gym.

"Nothing," all of the boys answered dully and out of unison.

"Very well, more sparring today. Himura-san, you can be spared. Partner up with Kamiya-san and see how well she can do against a youkai. We'll work her up from there," Saitou ordered.

He continued with his speech and partnered up others he felt needed to work together, but Kaoru didn't pay attention. She forced herself to look at Battousai. He looked like he was sizing her up, the same way he had earlier. She sighed, and prepared herself for the worst to come.

* * *

Alright, readers, here's the deal. I've done this story for years. Not all at once, but I've spent considerable time on it. I want to finish this story in its entirety, but I'm not as into Rurouni Kenshin as I used to be. I've gotten up to chapter twelve, but I hate a lot of what this story used to be. I want to fix that first, so I've deleted chapters 5-12 so I can fix them and get them back up. That way, I'm happy with my work and see if I can get myself back into this story and fandom. Until then, it's just these four revised chapters.

I've probably upset a lot of old readers with this, provided they're still floating around, but it's still better than me deleting the whole thing and giving up on it entirely.

Please review!


	5. Kendo and Kamatari

So wow, look at this. I actually got a chapter up after a year even though it's been up before. It's been long enough that my writing style has improved and changed enough for me to want to redo the first four chapters again. Hopefully, you all will enjoy this and I'll be able to get another chapter up soon.

* * *

Kaoru took deep breaths in, forcing herself to be calm. She wasn't entirely sure what Battousai was going to do, and she needed to be able to react to anything. She rolled her shoulders then brought up her bokken. He brought his up as well. For a moment, neither of them moved.

Kaoru's eyes widened as Battousai seemingly disappeared. She was immediately on the balls of her feet, eyes wide and searching. He reappeared almost immediately after directly in front of her. Kaoru could see his bokken heading towards her, but knew she wouldn't be quick enough to stop it. Battousai's bokken hit Kaoru's stomach, but it hardly hurt at all. She was startled by the lack of pain and stumbled backwards a few steps. She stared at him, trying to figure out what was going on.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Kamiya-san," he told her with a shrug, "I'm just going to be faster than you."

"Is everyone going to hold back like you?" she asked, forcing herself to calm down and think clearly.

"Maybe, but probably not," he said, moving back a few paces to where he had started, "Which is why you should try to stop my attacks before they reach you."

"I did try," she said, trying not to grind her teeth in frustration.

"I know. I saw," he said, bringing his bokken up again, "Just try to be a little faster."

She glowered and brought up her bokken.

Battousai disappeared again. Kaoru's eyes narrowed. She knew what to expect, but she still couldn't see him. She caught him at the last moment attacking from the right, and she immediately brought her arms down to defend. She swore she just barely missed, but that didn't count for anything. She still felt his bokken collide into her side. He gave her a sympathetic smile as he stepped away, and she really wanted to just smash him over the head.

They raised their bokkens. He disappeared and struck from above. She missed again and he tapped the top of her shoulder. She grimaced and waited for him to go back to his starting point. They raised their bokkens, and he attacked towards her center. She took a step back to give herself more time, but it still wasn't enough. He was too quick.

She bit down on letting out a grunt of frustration as he set up again. He could break her shield, and now he could pass her defenses in kendo. She couldn't believe someone could be so quick. She almost wished his attacks did cause her pain so as to give her an out to be able to stop for the day. After around fifteen rounds of one sided attacks, Kaoru was panting from forcing herself to react as quickly as she possibly could.

She gave a grunt of frustration as he disappeared again. She hopped back a few steps to increase the distance, and when she saw him, she attacked. She missed his bokken entirely, and hers crashed down on his wrist. He still tapped her shoulder.

"What was that for?" he asked, lowering his weapon and examining his wrist.

"I was just trying to stop you," she said sourly with a shrug, really aggravated that her attempt hadn't worked.

"That hurt a lot worse than it should've," he said, rubbing the hurt wrist.

"It probably burned you a bit," she said, suddenly realizing that maybe using her father's gift hadn't been the greatest of ideas.

"Burned me?" he asked, looking away from his wrist to give her his full attention.

"Yeah, my bokken was made by my father. He infused a few wards into it. It shouldn't be that strong though," she explained.

"I'm pure youkai. I guess you could say I'm sensitive to that sort of stuff. It's not too bad, but it still stings," he explained in return, shaking out his wrist.

"I didn't know," she said, not sure if she should apologize.

"Know any way to turn it off?" he asked.

"I can weaken it, but not turn it off entirely," she said, running a hand over the length of the bokken. She could feel the wards dim beneath her hand. When she finished, she looked up to see Battousai watching her.

"I guess that'll have to do," he said, moving back to his usual starting point.

The rest of practice continued like that. Kaoru retreated and blocked as fast as she possibly could and was still not fast enough. Battousai was rather polite about it, if an amused smile rather than outright condescension or bragging could be considered polite. He knew she couldn't beat him, but he let her try anyways, even if that only added to her frustration. At least if he taunted her some she could retort or just plain yell at him.

When Saitou called for the end of practice, she stalked off immediately to the locker room. She changed slowly, trying to force herself to calm down. She got her breathing back to normal, and she felt exhausted. Usually kendo just felt relieving and like a good work out. This time, it felt the same way it had after she'd gotten sick for a week and had to get back into shape. She was glad she didn't have much homework because she really needed to take a relaxing bath.

After finishing changing, she opened the door and was surprised to see someone waiting for her.

"Hey, Kamiya-san," he greeted her.

"Um, hi," she said, not sure what to do, "You're Kamatari-san right?"

"Yeah, you remembered me," he said cheerfully, "You're rooming with Megumi right?"

"Yeah, how did you know?" she asked, feeling a little suspicious of him.

"Megumi and I are friends. We talk a lot," he explained easily with a shrug.

"Do you need something?" she asked, making a move to walk away if he didn't.

"No, I was just wondering if I could walk with you," he said, giving her a light smile.

"Yeah, that's fine," she said, motioning for him to walk beside her.

"How's school going?" he asked.

"It's fine. It hasn't really kicked in for me yet," she said with a shrug.

"It'll pick up soon enough," he said gently.

"How's it going for you?" she asked, not wanting the conversation to fall into a lull.

"Pretty well," he told her, "I've got a few good teachers, and kendo is starting off well, too."

"That's good," she said.

There was an awkward silence for a few moments and Kaoru didn't know what to say. "What do you think about coming here?"

"You mean to this school?"

"Yeah, it's all youkai then you and Yumi," he said, "That's got to be a big change."

"Yeah, it is. My last school was all human, though not everyone was miko," she answered with a shrug.

She opened the door out and held it out for Kamatari. "Thanks," he said.

"You're welcome," she responded.

"Must have been nice at your last school, having a lot of people like you," he said.

"Well, I don't really care that pretty much everyone here is youkai. I just kind of figured I'd be going all the way through school with my friends. It's not that I'm not grateful to be here, I'd just like to know more people," she explained with a shrug, looking over at him to see if he understood.

He smiled at her, "You've met me now, though! You're also going to be friends with Megumi, yeah? Give it some time, and you'll make new friends. You still have your old friends, they're just a little farther away."

"Yeah, I guess I just have to get used to it," she said with a shrug, trying not to feel as sad and lonely as she did.

"It'll be fine," he assured her.

She did hope so. She put her hand on the door handle for the girl's dorm then remembered that Kamatari was still with her. "Aren't you going to go over there?" she asked him, pointing to the boy's dorm.

"Nah, Megumi invited me over. I hope that's alright," he said with an apologetic smile and a shrug.

"Yeah, that's fine," she said, pulling open the door, "but are you allowed in?"

"Yeah, all the girls here know me. No one ever tells on me," he said with a grin.

"Alright, come on then," she motioned for him to go in as she held open the door.

He nodded to her as he went in, and she followed behind him. They took the stairs up, and no one gave Kamatari any second glances. "How do you like your room by the way?" Kamatari asked as they went up.

"Oh, I think it's great. It's a lot nicer than what I expected it to be," she told him.

"Yeah, I think they're pretty great, but I didn't get the top bunk this year," he said, pouting a little.

"There's always next year," she assured him.

"That's true, and I do have pretty decent roommates otherwise," he added.

"Yeah, Megumi and Misao are also a lot better than what I was expecting," she agreed.

"Maybe you're just lucky," he said as they reached her dorm room.

She opened the door, and she heard, "Welcome back."

Misao waved at her from where she was doing her homework on the bed, still in athletic wear. "Hey," she greeted then turned to Megumi, "I brought Kamatari over."

"Hey Kamatari," she greeted her friend as he walked in and shut the door behind himself.

"Hey," he responded.

"Do you know Misao?" Megumi asked as she walked over to him.

"I think so," he said, studying Misao for a moment.

"I've seen him before," Misao assured her and gave Kamatari a little salute, "Hey."

"So, I'm going to take a bath," Kaoru said to Megumi, "please keep him distracted."

"Not a problem, Kaoru," she said with a nod. She immediately started up a conversation with Kamatari.

Kaoru turned away and went to her dresser. She pulled out the bottom drawer, revealing that it was stuffed full of comfort wear. She pulled out a favorite grey sweatshirt, a soft baggy tee, and a good pair of navy lounge pants. She also made sure to grab clean and comfy underclothing from a different drawer. She tucked them close against her chest to hide them from sight and retreated into the bathroom.

She set her clothing on top of the toilet and turned on the water. Once she got the water to a good temperature, she left to let the tub fill. She pulled off all of her clothes, feeling slightly less sweaty with still cool air against her skin. She stretched a little as she waited for the water level to get to the height she wanted. When it was, she shut off the faucet and stepped in.

She bathed for around forty five minutes, most of the time had been spent relaxing herself. She stood up in the bath when she finished. She gathered her hair into her hands, and wrung the excess water out of her hair. After wringing out all of the water she could, she tossed her hair back over her shoulder, drained the bathtub of the water, and stepped out of the tub. She toweled herself dry before putting on her comfy clothes. She rehung the towel, and grabbed the clothes she had been wearing before. She unlocked the door, and reentered the main room. She looked around the room to see Kamatari, Misao, and Megumi sitting on Megumi's full bed talking about some boy Kaoru didn't know. She shrugged and continued onto the closet, tucking the dirty clothes away in the basket.

Kamatari noticed Kaoru first. He used his hands to push himself counterclockwise to face Kaoru. He gave her a warm smile. "So, feeling better Kaoru-chan?" Kamatari asked.

Kaoru nodded "Much better."

"That's good," Misao said with a smile.

"Yeah, but now I have to do homework," she said with a grimace.

"We'll try not to bother you," Megumi promised.

"It's fine. You guys are only talking anyways," she said with a shrug as she pulled out her backpack to begin her work. She decided to work on the floor. None of her homework was too hard or grueling, and she half listened to the conversation as she completed her work. She finished as Megumi announced that it was getting rather late. Kaoru checked the window, the sun was still out, but she knew it was getting late.

"I guess it's time for me to head out then," Kamatari said, getting off the bed, "I've still got some of my homework to finish."

"See you later," Megumi said as he headed towards the door.

"Bye," he said as he opened it, giving them all a wave.

"Bye," they returned as he left and shut the door.

"I think I like him," Misao said with a slow nod.

"Yeah, he's a pretty good guy," Megumi said with a shrug, "I don't like all of his friends, but I like him."

"Yeah, he's nice," Kaoru agreed, packing up all of her things so that she'd be ready for the following day.

"By the way, how was kendo, Kaoru?" Misao asked as she made her way over to her bed. Her school supplies were still spread all over it.

"Really tiring," she said as moved her backpack over to the side, "Battousai is really, really good."

"You fought Battousai?" she asked, looking a little surprised.

"Yeah, Saitou-sensei asked him to get me used to sparring with youkai, or whatever. It makes sense really 'cause I have no experience, but I don't have to like it," she explained.

"Why, what's wrong with it?" she asked, "Isn't it good to spar with the best?"

"I guess, but he's just kind of really aggravating," she said, tilting her head from side to side.

"Well, Aoshi-sama is the best in our class, and I'd really like to spar with him," she said cheerfully with a grin.

"That's because you like him," she pointed out.

"Yeah, I do," she admitted with nonchalance, "Do you not like Battousai?"

"It's not a matter of liking or not, I just don't know him. So far though, not really," she thought over the times she'd talked to him or they'd recognized each other's presence, "He's not bad, and he's skilled, but I'm not too impressed by his personality."

"Maybe it'll grow on you," Megumi shot out from the other side of the room.

"What makes you say that?" Kaoru asked, turning to face her and straightening from the crouch she'd been in to talk to Misao.

"You said yourself you didn't really know him. Plus, he is cute," she said with a wicked grin.

"Cute can't save a personality," she pointed out then relented, "He is pretty cute though."

"Aoshi-sama is better," Misao said with a pout.

"Hey, at least you know you don't have competition," Megumi said with a shrug and a bit of a smirk.

"True," she conceded, but continued to pout nonetheless.

"I don't know," Kaoru said, "I've got other things to do than worry about boys. I'll just let it go for now and see what happens."

"That seems like a good plan," Megumi said, now moving over to her dresser to pull out pajamas.

"You getting ready for bed?" Misao asked, looking a little surprised and repulsed by the idea of going to bed a little early.

"Yeah, I figure I'd just read for a bit then go to sleep," she said with a shrug, "I don't know how much time I'll have for that later in the year."

"That sounds nice," Kaoru said as she started to climb up to her top bunk, "but I think I'm just going to go to bed. I know I'm going to be sore tomorrow."

"Good luck with that," Misao said with a teasing edge.

"Yeah, yeah, night," she said as she got under the covers.

"Night," Misao said.

"Night," Megumi added as she finished changing.

The light stayed on for a while longer, and Kaoru didn't fall asleep. Misao stopped making noise, and she assumed she had fallen asleep even before Megumi turned off her light. The light went off and Megumi sighed before falling asleep. Kaoru, however, remained awake. She was relaxed and should have by all means fallen asleep, but she kept replaying Battousai's attacks. She was still looking for a way to counter and get passed his defenses. She fell asleep to him still winning and landing a tap on her shoulder.

* * *

This chapter basically went over a major overhaul. I probably just deleted about 3/4ths of this chapter and rewrote it. It's still shorter than the original, but it's so much better. I think Battousai is more in character now, and the whole plot of the chapter is more reasonable.

Hopefully, you've enjoyed this, and hopefully I'll get another chapter edited and up soon. Please review!


	6. Drama

This chapter is super changed from what it used to be. It's practically an entirely new chapter. All of the chapters after it are going to have to be adjusted for this so they're all going to be practically new chapters. Hopefully, you think it's better than what it was. Please enjoy!

* * *

In Kaoru's opinion, Friday afternoon was the best. It was as good as it gets with all weekend left ahead of her to use as she pleased. She was exhausted, and she first intended to use it for a good nap. As soon as she was in her dorm, she dropped her backpack and climbed up onto her bed to stretch out. Her body still felt sore. She'd been sparring with Battousai practically every day for a month, and she didn't seem to be getting anywhere. She never, ever landed any hits on him, and he always managed to tap her. She couldn't tell if he was speeding up or not, but her body still managed to be sore. She was straining her body so she hoped that she was improving. The only relief was Kamatari cheering her up after every practice. She didn't always believe what he said, but his enthusiasm was welcome nonetheless.

Her miko studies were perhaps more depressing than kendo. At least she truly enjoyed kendo even if she wasn't winning. Miko studies, on the other hand, were just something that she had done from time to time. It was stressful for her to try so hard and still fail. They had been working on purification for the last month, and she hadn't improved much at all. She was terrified to check her grade. It was even worse because Battousai was usually the one Majushinpi-sensei called out of class to practice with.

She sighed heavily.

"Bad day?"

Kaoru managed to lift her head from the pillow to pout at Megumi. "Like you wouldn't believe," she said, dropping back down onto her bed.

"Still not getting anywhere in kendo or miko studies?" she asked, a slight tease to her tone.

"It's not a joke, Megumi," she said, crossing her arms but too tired to force herself to sit up and look at her, "This is terrible. I'm doing better in math than I am in kendo and at being a miko!"

She groaned and rubbed the heel of her hand against her forehead.

"Well, what are you going to do about it?" she asked, her teasing tone disappeared.

Kaoru huffed, even though she knew she had a point. Megumi was definitely the smartest of the three roommates, possibly out of anyone she'd ever met. That was fine. It was only a problem when Megumi added it to her unusual maturity. It made her a really good problem solver and a pragmatic friend, but it didn't help when Kaoru just wanted to complain for a while.

"I'll think about it after a nap," she said, rolling over towards the wall.

"Alright," Megumi said, not badgering her after that.

It didn't take long for her eyes to grow heavy and eventually fall asleep. She woke to a poke on her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see Misao's head over the railing of her bunk. "Hey," she greeted sleepily, "What time is it?"

"About five," Misao told her, "You were asleep for a while."

"Yeah, I feel better though," she said, sitting up and stretching her arms. She felt a little sleepy still, but her body didn't feel so tired. She felt a little less stressed and sore, too.

"Me and Megumi are gonna watch a drama. Do you wanna watch?" Misao asked, stepping down from her bed onto the floor.

"Yeah, sure, which one?" she asked as she moved to climb down from her bunk.

"I don't know. I think we're just going to watch whatever's on," she answered with a shrug.

"Well, hopefully it'll be good," she said as she reached the floor.

Megumi was already fiddling around with the television remote, trying to find a channel showing a drama. Kaoru and Misao took seats on the couch. Megumi continued to flick through the channels to find something good.

"Oh, this one, this one," Misao suddenly shouted, pointing at the screen. Megumi stopped pushing buttons.

"What's this one?" Kaoru asked, "I don't think I've seen this one before."

"I've seen a bit of it," Misao said, "It's really funny. The lead guy is such a dork, but he's so cute. His love interest is all small and adorable too. They're so cute together!"

"Alright, we'll watch it," Megumi said, setting down the remote.

They only had to watch for a little while until the show made a joke at the expense of the truly dorky main character. They laughed as he got annoyed, but fumbled over his words as he tried to defend himself. His love interest elbowed him in the side and cheered him up. He only gave her a smile after she had turned away.

"This is really cute," she said, and they continued watching.

* * *

"Oi, Yahiko,"

"What?" Yahiko asked as he looked up from his homework to see Shishio in the doorway of their dorm room with his girlfriend hanging off his arm.

"Do you mind?" he asked.

"Mind what?" he tilted his head, confused.

He rolled his eyes, "Getting out."

"Why?" he frowned, his eyebrows drawing together. He was clearly not getting whatever his roommate was implying.

He glared at him, "For my girlfriend."

"Huh?" his confusion was only increasing.

"Me and my girlfriend," Shishio gestured to his girlfriend, "Would like some quality time together."

He nodded still not getting his point.

"Alone."

Yahiko's eyes widened with realization. "Oh, oh….oh. Okay, I'll go now," he said, quickly shuffling his homework into a pile, picking it up, and squeezing out the door, "Bye! Have fun!"

The door was slammed closed on his face. "How rude," he muttered. He adjusted his pile of schoolwork and began heading down to the lobby. He only hoped Battousai wouldn't walk in on them. He intended not to be there if it happened.

He checked out the lobby for places to work. He spotted a lone table in the corner and headed there. He set up his homework again, and began his work again. It wasn't too bad until he tried to do his last bit of science homework and realized he needed his textbook to do it, which was upstairs in his dorm room. He groaned, feeling a little sorry for himself even if it was just a minor problem. Then, he packed up again and decided to do something else.

Yahiko wandered into the courtyard with his homework still in his arms. He slumped onto one of the various benches in the area. There was nothing for him to do. He slouched, resting his head on the back of the bench, and tried to fall asleep as it was still rather nice out. Before he did, he heard something; laughter. It sounded familiar. He decided to get up and search out the owner of the laugh. It was better than doing nothing.

He stalked about the courtyard, eventually tracking the laughter to an open window a few floors up. He knew whose room that was. He took a running start, and leapt onto the miko's window sill. He nearly missed. He cussed as his arms windmilled in an attempt to keep his balance. By some miracle he managed not to fall of the ledge, or drop his homework. He had always thought Battousai made this stuff look too easy. He rolled his eyes at the thought of his roommate.

"Yahiko!" Kamiya said in surprise, getting up from the couch, "What are you doing here?"

She acted as if it was normal to find him on her window sill. He guessed her yelling at him the last few times he'd shown up on her sill to mush her along to kendo was only because he'd been there to mush her along.

"Uh, could I crash here for a bit?" he asked, hoping it would be alright and he'd then he'd something to do.

"Why? Don't you have your own dorm?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, her eyes narrowing in slight suspiscion, and her voice hinting at her confusion.

"Yeah, but Shishio's using it for quality time with his girlfriend," Yahiko let out a short forced laugh at how awkward the situation sounded.

"Oh… sorry, you have such a terrible roommate," she said, her suspicion gone.

"It's not your fault, can I come in now?" he asked. His legs were cramping beneath him. It took a lot of balance to stay on the thin ledge.

"Sure," she shrugged, and returned to the couch.

"Why'd you let him in?" Makimachi asked Kamiya. Yahiko had learned the names of the miko's roommates in his last few visits.

"Shishio kicked him out of their dorm room," she explained as she plopped back down onto the couch.

"Ouch, poor guy," Takani said, and Makimachi and Kamiya nodded their heads in agreement.

"I don't need your sympathy," Yahiko grumbled as he sat down on the floor, setting down his homework. They weren't friends, but he knew he should be a bit nicer to them. They were granting him a favor.

"Maybe we weren't giving it to you," Kaoru stuck her tongue out at him then looked back towards the TV.

Yahiko glared at her for a second before turning to the TV as well. It was showing a commercial for some car. "What are you guys watching?" he asked.

"Some drama," Kamiya explained with a wave of her hand, "It's funny."

"I heard,"

"Heard what?" she asked.

"You guys laughing. Your window was open, remember?" he said, pointing back towards it.

"Right," she said, looking over at the window.

The show came back on and they returned to watching. Yahiko had to admit it was a decent show with pretty good funny moments. He'd never consider it a favorite, but it was decent for what it was. The girls were more open with their laughing. He was a little surprised that he was so comfortable with them and that he was even enjoying being with them a little bit. It was definitely better than doing nothing or having to be alone in his dorm room with Shishio.

They all started when they heard a tap on the window. Yahiko spun around to see Battousai crouching on the sill. "Sorry for intruding," he said, "I was just checking that Yahiko was here."

"You didn't walk in on Shishio and her, did you?" Yahiko asked teasingly.

"It was a close call," he said with a shrug, "but I didn't."

Yahiko snickered. "You two are roommates?" Kamiya asked.

"Yeah," they answered.

"Oh, do you wanna hang out here until Shishio is done, too?" Kamiya asked Battousai then looked back to her roommates, "That's alright with you, yeah?"

"Yeah, sure, it's fine," Takani said with a shrug. Makimachi nodded in agreement.

"Oh," he said, sounding a little surprised that they'd extend their hospitality to him, "Thanks."

He stepped down from the sill into the room. Yahiko caught the gentle smile Kamiya sent him, but wasn't sure if Battousai had. She was trying really hard to be nice, he guessed. Battousai silently took a seat between Yahiko and the couch. They shared a glance before both turning to the TV.

"So," Makimachi began, "are you really the best in kendo?"

Battousai glanced up at her and answered with a shrug, "I guess so."

She gave him a bland look, "You either are or you aren't. How do you not know?"

"It's never really bothered me if I'm the best or not," he admitted, "I like kendo and I happen to be very good at it."

"Yeah, really," Kamiya scoffed.

"You're pretty good too," he told her.

"Still can't land a hit," she muttered.

"That's only because you're not fast enough yet," he said with the beginning of a smirk.

She shot him a halfhearted glare. He returned with a small smile. Yahiko just gave the pair of them a weird look. "Guys, let's just watch the drama," Makimachi said, interrupting whatever was going on with Kamiya and Battousai.

Kamiya returned immediately to the show, but Battousai was much slower in returning his attention to the TV. They almost finished the episode when they heard a knock on the door. Yahiko looked over to Battousai, "You don't think it's the proctor, do you?"

"Who cares?" Makimachi said, sounding panicked, "If anyone finds out you're in here, we're all screwed."

"Go hide in the bathroom, and I'll hold them off," Takani said, climbing off the bed as there was another round of knocks on the door. Both boys were on their feet, tip toeing over to the bathroom.

"Kaoru, go with them so they don't try to check the bathroom," Makimachi said, keeping her voice down so she wouldn't be heard from outside.

"Right," she said with a nod, following after them. She shut the door behind them as soon as she was in.

"Does it smell like peaches?" Yahiko asked, sniffing the air.

"Yeah, a little bit," Battousai agreed, "and vanilla."

"Shut up," Kamiya hissed at them, "and quit sniffing their bath soap."

"What are they saying?" Yahiko asked, pressed his ear against the door. He could hear voices, but he wasn't making them out very well through the door. Battousai and Kamiya also leaned their heads against the door, crowding the space.

"I think they're talking about a scarf," Battousai said.

"Oh, they're asking about the bathroom now," Yahiko whispered as he heard the proctor raise their voice somewhat.

"Oh, Kaoru's just about to take a shower. You should come back and check the bathroom later," Makimachi said rather loudly.

Kamiya moved away from the door and went over and turned the shower on. Yahiko smiled and caught himself before he laughed at that. She came back, squeezing herself between the two boys, and pressed her ear against the door again. They couldn't hear much over the shower. They all jumped when they heard a knock on the door. Luckily, it wasn't right where their ears were. "You can come out now," Makimachi told them through the door.

"Alright, go out, and I'll turn off the shower," Kamiya said, moving back towards the shower. Battousai opened the door and the two boys stepped out into the main room with cooler air. Makimachi and Takani were both in the main room looking proud of themselves for having gotten out of a messy situation. Though, Takani was closer to smirking than Makimachi was.

"How long until she comes back?" Kamiya asked, joining them in the main room after having shut off the shower.

"She said she was going to finish going around to all the other rooms, so maybe a half hour, forty five minutes?" Makimachi answered.

"We should go," Battousai said, "I can't really afford to get in trouble."

"Yeah, me neither," Yahiko added.

"We'll see you later then," she said, "Maybe next time we can watch some anime or something."

"Hopefully, we'll be able to keep Komagata out of the dorm next time," he said, moving toward the window.

"Wait a sec," Kamiya said, "Komagata-senpai is dating Shishio?"

"Yeah, you didn't know?" Yahiko asked, turning back to her.

"No," she said, looking shocked and shaking her head, "but why? I can't imagine her dating him."

"I have no idea," Battousai said with a shrug, "It makes no sense. It's also really annoying."

"They seem really serious sometimes," Yahiko added, "It's a little scary."

"How long have they been together?" she asked.

"Three years?" Yahiko asked, looking to Battousai for confirmation. He nodded.

"Wow," she said.

"I can't believe they've been together that long," Makimachi chimed in, "Usually youkai and human couples don't work out so well."

"They seem to be doing just fine," Battousai said, "It's only unfortunate that they're doing just fine in our dorm room."

"Well, you can't stay here any longer," Takani said, moving towards them, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," he said, holding up a hand, "Let's go, Yahiko."

He jumped out of the window, landing smoothly on the ground. Yahiko followed him right after grabbing his homework, his landing a bit more wobbly. "That wasn't so bad," he commented as they walked back to the boys' dorm.

"What wasn't?" Battousai asked.

"Hanging out with them, Kamiya's rather nice. We should get more girls on the kendo team," he said with a shrug, "Don't you think?"

"Maybe," he answered with a shrug, "but they were nice to invite us over. Now, we have to go kick Komagata out."

"You can take the honors," he said, holding up his hands.

"Fine, but you're doing it next time," he said with a slight grumble.

"Deal,"

They went up to their dorm and stood in front of their door. Yahiko made a gesture for Battousai to go ahead. He rolled his eyes, reached out, and knocked on the door. Yahiko backed away a few steps, and Shishio opened the door without a shirt on and his hair down. "You're back just in time," he said, sounding like a contented cat, "Yumi is just leaving."

As he spoke, Komagata squeezed her way out of the doorway. She looked exactly the same as she did when she had arrived. She gave Shishio a goodbye wave then walked down the hall without looking back.

"Go put on a shirt," Battousai said, "No one wants to see your chest."

"Yumi does," he said, as he backed into the room, allowing his roommates to come in.

"We don't care," Yahiko said.

"Just think about it this way," he said slyly, "if you let me have my time with Yumi, I'll let you have your time with your girlfriends, provided you ever get any."

"Who said we wanted girlfriends?" Yahiko asked as he stuffed away his homework, except for the little he didn't get done.

"Then why do you smell like girls' body wash?" he asked as he pulled on his shirt.

Yahiko and Battousai shared a pained look. "We hung out with a few friends that are girls while you had the room," Battousai answered as smoothly as he could, "the proctor came by so we hid out in their bathroom."

Shishio gave them a weird, disbelieving look. "It's true," Yahiko added then realized that that probably hadn't helped.

"Who did you hang out with?" he asked, smiling like he'd caught a mouse.

Battousai scratched the side of his head, and Yahiko realized they weren't really going to get out with a lie. "Kamiya and her roommates," Battousai answered slowly.

"Really?" he asked, crossing his arms, "That seems rather odd."

"What makes you say that?" Yahiko asked, feeling a little perturbed by Shihsio's tone.

"It just didn't seem like you knew each other that well," he said, sounding uninterested.

"It was just a thing to do while you took up the whole room," he said defensively.

"Well, let me know how this thing goes," he said, turning towards his bed, "I've got homework to do."

Battousai and Yahiko shared another look. "What was up with that?" Yahiko whispered so Shishio wouldn't hear.

"I'm not sure, but I don't think Shishio wants us to be making friends with the new miko," Battousai said.

* * *

So I'm just going to try and edit then bust out these chapters as fast as I can. I'm about halfway through so it shouldn't take too long. After that, it's probably going to be iffy. My writing style has changed into writing short chapters so they might end up being shorter than what I usually had for chapters before I started editing. I'll try and create a schedule to keep to when I start writing new chapters again. We'll see how it goes, and hopefully you all will like it.

Wish me luck, and please review!


	7. Planning Saturday

And my usual short-ish chapter makes a come back. I find this length most comfortable for me so the rest of the chapters will likely be this length. I changed the last chapter so much that this is basically an entirely new chapter. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Kaoru noticed a change after that evening the two boys spent in her dorm room. Yahiko began accompanying her to kendo on the days they had practice after school. He'd meet up with her outside of the dorm room and they'd walk together. He even occasionally walked with her and Kamatari back to the dorms. She had noticed that they both acted like they'd had a fight sometime in the past, but it didn't ever override the atmosphere of their conversations.

They mostly talked about kendo. It was the first thing they knew they had in common. He had shared a little info with her on the tournament the school participated in, but had cut it out after mentioning that she might not make it into the school's team of participants. She wasn't upset by that. After all, it was hard to compete with youkai, and she was a freshman.

They branched out to talking about Battousai. They both knew him, and Yahiko had a stock pile of stories about him. He had a knack for witty retorts and occasional instances of being a total dork, and Yahiko remembered them all fairly well. They usually had her laughing. She thought it was nice hearing about him outside of kendo. It did, however, make her want to tell stories about her friends from home.

After a couple weeks, Kaoru started counting Yahiko as a friend along with Misao, Megumi, Sano, and Kamatari. She talked with a good number of her classmates, but she wasn't really comfortable with calling any of them friends. She wanted to make friends with maybe the Sekihara twins, but she always felt a little apprehensive in reaching out to them. They seemed nice, but she never made a decision by the time class rolled around.

The next change started with Misao. She disappeared between classes. She didn't come back to the dorm right away on the days she didn't have ninja class after school. Kaoru asked Megumi about it, but she didn't know anything about it. They had joked that maybe she was stalking Aoshi. When Misao came back later than usual again, Kaoru decided to ask her about it.

"So where have you been disappearing off to, Misao?" she asked as the other girl unloaded her bag onto her bed.

"I've been around, tryin' to get to know Yahiko and Battousai," she answered, still focused on her bag and unloading.

"Why're you doing that?" she asked, surprised by her answer.

"Well, they hung out with us, and you seemed to like 'em, so I thought I should get to know them better," she said with a shrug, "Plus, they know Aoshi-sama."

"You're using them to get to Aoshi-senpai?" Kaoru asked, wondering if she should maybe tell Misao that that wasn't a good idea.

"No, that's just a bonus," she said with a grin, "Yahiko gets annoyed when I talk too much, but Battousai is really quiet. He hasn't said anything about me trying to talk to him."

"Maybe he just doesn't know what to do with you," she teased, leaning back on her hands. She'd been doing her homework on the floor again.

"Or he's being nice," Megumi suddenly added from where she was on her bed doing her homework.

"I guess that could be it," Misao said with a shrug.

"It's kind of weird that neither of them told me about it," Kaoru said, sitting upright crossing her arms, "I see them both every day."

"Do you usually talk about me with them?" she asked, looking genuinely interested in the response.

"No, I actually don't talk that much with Battousai at all. I talk about him with Yahiko when we're not walking with Kamatari," she explained, thinking that under those circumstances it made sense that they hadn't talked about Misao.

"Why do you talk about Battousai?" she asked, tilting her head, "That seems kind of weird."

"You talk about Aoshi-senpai almost all the time," Megumi pointed out, again interrupting her own work.

"Yeah, but he's amazing," she said, stressing the last word.

"Maybe Kaoru thinks Battousai is amazing," she suggested before putting away the homework she'd finished to pull out some she hadn't.

"If we're talking about kendo, then yeah. We only really talk about him because we don't have that many people or things in common," Kaoru defended simply and with a shrug.

"Do you think they'll ever come over again?" Misao asked as she sat down on her bed, "When Komagata is over with Shishio."

"Yahiko definitely will. I don't know about Battousai. We should invite Sano over just to round it out," she answered with a chuckle as she mentioned their rooster haired friend.

"Oh yeah, I meant to tell you," she said, sitting up straight and suddenly excited, "Sano came and hung out with me when I was talking to Battousai and Yahiko today. He seemed to like them. We should all hang out together sometime."

"That's fine," Megumi said, popping back into the conversation, "We could hang out in the courtyard before it starts getting too cold."

"Yeah, but do you think they'll actually want to do it?" Kaoru asked, feeling apprehensive of and resistant towards the idea.

"Come on, Kaoru," Misao said in her coaxing tone, "You spend all your time at school, at kendo, or in this dorm. You can hang out with people, you know."

"I know," she said, rolling her head a little.

"Then you should do it. You don't even have to meet anybody new!" she said excitedly, throwing up her hands and almost hitting the bed above her.

"Yeah, I guess," she said, hunching her shoulders a little.

"It'll be fun," she continued cheerfully, leaning towards Karou.

"Fine," she grumbled. She was more uncomfortable with spending so much time with youkai than she cared to admit, especially in large groups. Part of the reason school bugged her so much was that she was surrounded by youkai in an enclosed space. She felt on guard constantly, like she was waiting for one of them to sprout fangs and bite into her. They hadn't done anything remotely like that to her, but it was a cool breeze always on the back of her neck.

Meeting youkai in a group sounded like a terrible idea to her, even if she called most of them friends. Getting comfortable living with Misao and Megumi had taken long enough, and longer than she'd expected it would. She hoped it hadn't been the same for them, but somehow she knew that it had been.

"Yay!" Misao cheered, "We should set it up for this weekend, Saturday afternoon."

"We can tell Sano all together, and Kaoru can tell Yahiko and Battousai," Megumi said, lifting her head up from her homework.

"Cool, it's all settled then," she returned happily, clapping her hands together.

"Yeah, I'll just tell them tomorrow and get it over with," Kaoru said grumpily while turning back to her own homework. She wasn't looking forward to it, but at least science homework could distract her for the time being.

* * *

Kaoru felt a bit like she was going to melt into a puddle on the floor from exhaustion. She liked exercise and kendo and getting her heart rate up and feeling strong, but this was brutal. She hadn't fallen asleep as early as she would have liked the night before, and Battousai hadn't let her have any slack. Still, she had her one last task before she could rest.

"Battousai," she called out to him as he was leaving for the boys' locker room.

"Yeah?" he asked, turning back to her.

"Me and my friends are going to hang out this Saturday, and um we wanted to invite you," she said, feeling awkward and trying to keep from fidgeting as he just looked at her with raised eyebrows, "I'm going to invite Yahiko, too."

He shrugged a little and said, "That's fine. When Saturday?"

"Just in the afternoon around one or two," she said, surprised that he'd answered positively. Yahiko made him sound like quite the loner sometimes, and she had been certain he'd just say no and walk off and leave her embarrassedly standing there.

"Alright," he said, giving her a smile small and a little wave as he turned away, "See you tomorrow, Kamiya."

"Yeah, see you," she said, almost forgetting to respond. She turned towards the locker room and released a short sigh, pleased she'd accomplished her task. She went into the locker room and quickly changed. She came out to see that Kamatari had already left, and that Yahiko was walking across the gym towards her.

"Hey," he greeted, raising his hand.

"Hey," she said, heading towards him so they could leave. He fell into step with her.

"I want to ask you something," she said, thinking that would be the easiest approach. He held open the door for her, and she walked through.

"What?" he asked as he tucked his hands into his pockets.

"Me and my friends are having a get together this Saturday so we were wondering if you wanted to join us," she told him, "Battousai said he'd come."

"Heh, 'bout time he stops hanging out with just Aoshi," he said with a little smirk.

"I still haven't told Misao about that," she said with her own little smirk forming.

"All they do is drink tea and talk about boring stuff," he shrugged, "They're like old people sometimes."

"They don't move like it," she commented, this time holding the door to the outside open for Yahiko.

"What?" he asked, turning around to face her as she walked through the doorway.

"Battousai's good at kendo…not stiff like an old person," she said, trailing off and giving him a weird look.

"Sorry, I heard," he made a whatever motion with his hand by his ear instead of finishing his sentence.

"Okay, Yahiko," she said, holding up her hands, "I don't want to know."

"Anyways," he said, drawing alongside her again, "What exactly are we going to do Saturday?"

"Hang out in the courtyard. Talk, do whatever, I don't know," she said, shrugging and raising her hands.

"So the usual sort of thing," he said with a tilt of his head.

"Yeah, except still on campus," she said, pressing her lips together.

"What's wrong with campus?" he asked, leaning towards her.

"Nothing, it's a pretty campus," she said lightly, "but there are a lot of youkai on it."

"Stressed out by it?" he asked.

"Yeah, actually," she looked up at him, surprised, "How'd you know?"

"I visited a school just for miko last year," he said, rolling his shoulders, "Gave me the creeps a bit. I felt really worn out when I left and slept in the car. It was kind of the same way around you for a while, but it's gotten much better."

"Yeah, I get that," she said with a nod, "I'm fine around Misao, Megumi, Sano, and you, but ugh, my classes and the first floor. It's a lot. I thought I would be fine when I first got here, but it was kind of bad for a while."

"Is it getting better though?" he asked, "I mean, you're going to hang out with a whole group of us."

"Yeah a little," she said, making a so-so hand motion, "This Saturday is just you guys though, so I should be fine. I didn't really wanna do it at first, but I think it'll be good."

"What about Battousai?" he asked, crossing his arms, "He's the only one you haven't adjusted to."

"Yeah, I don't know. I spar with him pretty much every day. I see him in my miko class every so often. It should be fine," she said, waving that concern off.

"Alright," he said, taking her word, "I think this Saturday will be good, too."

"Yeah, well, I'll see you tomorrow," she said as they came to the place where they usually separated.

"See you around," he said, patting his hand on her shoulder once before walking off.

She walked on into the girls' dorm. She took the stairs up to her dorm and let herself in. She found Megumi sitting on her bed, reading. "Hey," Kaoru greeted her.

"Hi," she said, looking up from her book, "so what's the verdict?"

"Both of them are coming," she said with a smile as she went over to her school bag.

"That's good," she said with a nod, "Sano said he'd come, too."

"Cool," she responded, hefting up her bag and hauling it into the middle of the room. The area had become her little domain for homework. "Where's Misao?" she asked as she sat down.

"Not sure, she should be here soon though," she answered before returning to her book.

She nodded then pulled out her homework. She wanted to take a bath and for this homework to disappear, but it was easier to get it done and treat the bath like a reward than it was to take a bath and try to work afterwards.

Misao came back, and they greeted her and filled her in on Saturday's plan. She started on her homework as well, and Misao and Kaoru checked answers with each other for the one class they did have together. Kaoru finished before Misao, and then all three had dinner together. Kaoru took her much needed and appreciated bath after dinner as Misao finished her homework. Then, they sat around and talked for a while. They went to bed eventually, and Kaoru fell asleep feeling pretty pleased about her day.

* * *

The few things out of the original chapter that I kept in here are Misao talking to Battousai and Yahiko with Sano joining in eventually, and Battousai and Kaoru sparring.

I added in the get together because there won't be much of the original eighth chapter that I'll be able to use. I also added a little more to what it would be like for Kaoru to be in a new place with beings that are either the opposite or enemy of her kind. Gives a little depth to it, and I've been really putting in the school setting with the homework.

The only thing that I like about my old style of writing is that it had a bit of voice to it. The voice wasn't always good, but it was there.

Hope you enjoyed it. Please review!


	8. In the Back

This is pretty much an entirely new chapter, and boy was it exhausting to write. Group conversations are hard. I'm not really sure where the first half of the chapter came from, but they talked about kendo in the original chapter 8 so at least something from it was kept. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

Kaoru blocked the bokken heading for her shoulder. She didn't have time to make a repost and blocked it again as it came towards her a second time. She even managed to tap it as it hit her side lightly. "I'm getting better," she said proudly as Battousai moved back a few steps.

"It's not going to mean anything if you can't get a repost in," he said with a shrug, "but you are getting faster."

"One step at a time," she admonished him, taking a moment to get her breath back, "I'll get the repost in."

"Time's up!" Saitou called out across the gym.

"You'll have to do it next time," Battousai told her.

"I will," she promised, and pointed her bokken at him, "Don't forget about tomorrow."

"I won't," he responded with a small smile and walked off to put his bokken away.

She stretched her arms as she walked over to her changing room, putting her bokken away as well. It was wonderful to get her sweaty clothes off and have her skin touch air for a moment. She pulled on her regular clothes and headed out. Kamatari had left already, he hadn't walked with her all week, but Yahiko was there and surprisingly so was Battousai. They were talking together near the exit, Yahiko leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and Battousai standing in front of him with his hands in his pockets.

"Hey," she called out to them, raising a hand in greeting.

"Hey," Yahiko responded while Battousai only nodded his head towards her in acknowledgement, "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," she said, pausing as Yahiko pushed himself off the wall. She didn't mention anything about Battousai's presence. Battousai pushed and held open the door with his side without taking his hands out of his pockets.

"Thanks," she and Yahiko said as they walked out. He only nodded in acknowledgement again. They walked silently for a few moments, and to be honest, it was a little awkward.

"So…" Yahiko said as he'd taken the spot in between Battousai and Kaoru, "How's it going?"

"Really, Yahiko?" Battousai asked, wearing a hint of an amused smile.

"What?" he asked defensively, "Usually we talk about you, but we can't talk about you when you're here."

Battousai raised his eyebrows and Kaoru was tempted to bash Yahiko over the head for sharing the information he had. "What exactly about me do you talk about?" he asked.

"Just funny stories," he answered with a shrug, "Nothing bad."

"Alright," he said, accepting it with a nod.

"Mostly how you can't watch a movie without commentary," he said smiling. Kaoru smiled as well, remembering some of the stories Yahiko had told her. Battousai either pointed out faults at just the right moment, or added in his own sarcastic remarks.

He made a face at that, "I can't help it."

"I know," he said with a chuckle.

Kaoru had nothing to add to the conversation, having only second hand information rather than experience. She twisted her strap of her bag. "What about you, Kamiya?" Battousai asked, causing her to look up at him, "Do you talk when you watch movies?"

"Um, not really, I just watch," she answered with a shrug.

"You should see Yahiko when he watches a movie with kendo in them," he said, pointing to his friend, "He can't ever watch."

"They're so bad," Yahiko defended, holding his hands to his face, "It's all wrong, and I can't even look."

"I think it's whatever," she said with a shrug, "It's just a movie."

"I'm alright with it if the stunts are good," Battousai added.

"Well, bad special effects are bad special effects," she responded.

"I don't care, the kendo is still wrong," Yahiko complained grouchily, still moving to hold the door open for her and Battousai. They both returned their thanks to him.

"If the kendo looks cool," Battousai said, tilting his head and allowing the movies some leeway.

"It's still bad and wrong," he retorted.

"So what do you do then? Look away?" she asked.

"I pretend it doesn't exist," he said.

"How do you get through anime then?" Kaoru asked.

"They don't always use real katana so I don't count many of the sword fights as kendo in anime," he answered.

"That makes sense," she said.

"I think the plot's more important than the weapons or fighting styles they use," Battousai commented.

"I know you do," Yahiko said, "That's why you always point out the plot holes."

He chuckled shortly, "I wouldn't point them out if they weren't a problem. Isn't that why you can't stand bad kendo choreography?"

"Yeah, maybe, it's mostly just annoying," he said, hunching his shoulders and crossing his arms.

"Does any movie have really good kendo?" Kaoru asked.

"I can't think of one," he said, shaking his head, "The fights always go on for too long."

"That's just for drama," she pointed out.

"Yeah, but they also talk all the time. I'm pretty sure people don't actually do that," he retorted, just wanting to be right.

"I think that's fine if they do it well," Battousai said, shrugging, "Talking just to talk isn't good, but if they're like talking about what they're fighting about that isn't so bad."

"That's something you would do though," Yahiko said rolling his eyes, "You'd explain to them why they're wrong and then you'd kick their asses to the curb."

He chuckled, "Maybe, I don't think it'd actually work though. Would anyone in real life really be able to take that seriously?"

"No! That's why it bothers me," he said, his hair puffing up a little, "I want them to kick butt like normal people."

"They're movies though," Kaoru reminded him, "They're not normal people, and they're not in normal circumstances. If they talk, at least it's better than the stronger being right. I mean, how many people would watch movies if the hero only had to beat someone to be right?"

"He does it anyways so what does it matter?" Yahiko said, holding up his hands.

"Well, the heroes are also violent people, but it's only their motives that separate them from the villains in a solely individual battle," Battsousai mused, "You wouldn't know who the good guy was if they didn't talk. If you just saw two people going at it without any explanation, who would you think was right?"

"I don't know," Yahiko said, "That's a stupid question."

"I'd think they're both wrong because they're just fighting instead of talking out their problems," Kaoru said with crossed arms.

Both boys chuckled. "It's not funny," she said huffily.

"It's funny cause it's true," Yahiko said, "but no movie's going to do that, or any shonen manga for that matter."

"Also true," she conceded. They were coming up to the dorms. They paused together, looking up at the girls' dorm then back to each other. "I'll see you guys tomorrow then," she said, making a motion towards the dorms.

"Courtyard at one, yeah?" Battousai checked.

"Yeah," she confirmed with a nod.

"We'll see you tomorrow," Yahiko said.

"Bye," she said as she began walking to the entrance of the dorm.

"Bye," they called back, walking towards their own.

She was ready for the weekend, thinking about how long and how hot of a bath she would take as she walked across the first floor of the dorm to the stairs. She was beginning to think things were looking up. Her grades were still good, she was getting better at kendo, and she was going to hang out with a group of friends the following day, her earlier stress about it gone. She took the last flight of stairs two steps at a time; reminding her of a scene of a movie where two men had battled their way up a set of stairs and thinking of how Yahiko must hate that scene.

She opened the door to see Megumi sitting on the couch with a girl who must be a friend of hers. She tried to remember if she had said anything about bringing a friend over, but couldn't remember. "Oh, Kaoru, this is Tsubame. We have history together," she explained, gesturing to the girl sitting next to her.

"Um, hi," she said, smiling at her. She didn't have that class with Megumi, and couldn't remember seeing her in any of her classes.

"Hi," Tsubame responded quietly.

"I won't bother you," Kaoru promised then gestured towards the bathroom, "I'm just going to take a bath."

The two girls nodded, and she turned around to grab clothes. She ignored them and their conversation as she gathered her things, not wanting to intrude. Once she had her comfy clothes, she went into the bathroom. She set her clothes on top of the toilet seat and prepared her bath. She loved getting clean after a workout, and this time she soaked for a long time. When she left the bathroom, Tsubame had left, Megumi was reading a book, and Misao seemed to be watching another drama.

She took a seat beside Misao, and her friend gave her a smile in greeting. They had a lazy, easy evening. In the morning, they ate breakfast, finished off some of their chores, and anticipated the afternoon meeting. They had lunch then headed out to the courtyard. They were a few minutes early, but that was intentional as they had set up the meeting. The sun was bright, but there was also sharpness to the breeze. Kaoru wore a sweatshirt, Megumi wore a sweater, and Misao seemed entirely unbothered.

They took a seat on one of the benches, and chatted as they waited for the boys to show up. Sano came out of the building first. "Hey!" he shouted boisterously to them while he was still halfway across the courtyard.

Megumi rolled her eyes while Misao and Kaoru giggled. "Hey," Kaoru greeted when he came closer.

"You didn't leave a seat for me," he commented, stopping in front of the bench.

"Well, we can move after Yahiko and Battousai show up, or you could just take a seat on the ground," Megumi said, gesturing towards his feet.

He pressed his lips together, "I'm not gonna sit on the ground."

"We'll find somewhere else to sit later," Kaoru said, intervening."

"Alright," he said, conceding and pausing for a moment, "So, why'd you invite Battousai? I know you're kinda friends with Yahiko, but I didn't think you knew Battousai all that well."

"He kind of hung out in our dorm room," Misao said with a shrug, "Might as well."

"And I spar with him practically every day," Kaoru added.

He accepted those points with a nod. "What are we going to do then?" he asked.

"Just talk I guess," she asked, looking towards her roommates.

"We can do whatever," Misao said, "We haven't planned anything."

"It would be nice if we could go off campus and do something," he said wistfully, looking towards the school's wall.

"Unfortunately, they don't like freshman doing that," Megumi said sourly, crossing her arms.

"Besides, it's kind of far to anywhere," Misao said, leaning back against the bench, "We're pretty much nowhere."

"That's true, but there really isn't all that much on campus either," he muttered.

"That's kind of the point," Megumi said, "We're in high school, not university."

"Only two more years after this," Sano said cheerfully.

"Two years is a long time," Kaoru said drearily.

"Not really," Misao said with a shrug, "We've already lived through a lot more than two years. Don't miko live a long time too?"

"For humans, I'm not sure how long youkai live," she answered with shrug.

"It depends on the kind," Megumi informed her.

"Why are we talking about this?" Sano asked, giving all three of them weird looks.

"Got anything better to talk about?" she retorted.

"Hey, guys," Misao said, nudging Kaoru's arm, "Yahiko and Battousai are coming."

She got to her feet and used her whole arm to wave to them. They raised their hands and waved back in response. "Hi!" Misao said brightly when they were near enough for a conversation.

"Hey," Yahiko greeted her while Battousai nodded, "what's up?"

"Not much," Kaoru said, standing as well, "We were trying to figure out what we wanted to do for the afternoon."

"There isn't much," Sano said with a shrug.

"We could walk around," Battousai suggested, "See what strikes us."

"Sounds fun," Megumi commented, sounding somewhere between genuine and sarcastic.

"Oh, we could go to the garden in the back corner of campus," Misao said excitedly, using her hands for emphasis.

"It's fall," Yahiko said frowning, "There's not going to be anything interesting there. What would we do?"

"I don't know, but we could find out," she said, putting her hands on her hips and giving him a challenging look, "It could be an adventure."

"Yeah, sure, crossing campus, big adventure," Sano said, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Isn't there supposed to be a forest in the back?" Megumi said as she wrapped her sweater around her tighter.

"It's not really a forest. It's more like an overgrown orchard," Battousai corrected her, shrugging.

"Well, why don't we go there?" she asked, "It's better than hanging around here."

"I'm in," Kaoru said, raising her hand as a vote.

"I am too," Misao added cheerfully, rising onto the balls of her feet for a moment.

"Sure," Battousai agreed.

"Fine," Yahiko said sullenly, crossing his arms.

"Let's go," Sano said, taking the first steps in the direction of the garden.

"Alright," Kaoru said, matching his speed. The group set out, eventually forming two lines. Yahiko and Misao walked beside each other, arguing about two shows and trying to prove one was better than the other, while Sano, Kaoru, Battousai, and Megumi walked behind them. Battousai and Megumi provided commentary on their argument, and Sano and Kaoru laughed at the good shots and kept score. The back line eventually separated into two conversations with Sano trying to teach Kaoru how to talk like a television sports commentator and Battousai and Megumi starting their own conversation on the shows' actors.

When the garden came into their line of sight, Sano announced, "Hey, I have an idea."

"What is it?" Megumi asked, leaning forwards to get eye contact around Battousai and Kaoru.

"Let's race," he said, grinning wickedly at all of them.

"You're on," Yahiko responded immediately with a matching grin.

"Alright, to the edge of the garden," Sano said then planted his feet firmly beside Yahiko, "From right here. Everybody line up."

Yahiko nodded and grinned, Kaoru took the spot beside him, then Misao, and lastly Battousai after he completed an exaggerated eye-roll. "I'll do the signal thing," Megumi said, stepping ahead of their makeshift and not completely straight line, "I'm not going to race."

They all nodded while keeping their eyes on the finish line. She raised her hand as they all crouched into starting positions. "Ready, set, go!" she shouted the last word and dropped her hand.

They all sprang forwards and ran full tilt. Kaoru was last by a few feet in a matter of seconds. "Wait, human," Battousai suddenly remarked, doubling back around Misao and giving up his lead. He ran back to Kaoru and grabbed her wrist.

"What are you doing?" she asked and then was suddenly tugged forward.

She nearly lost balance and slammed straight into the ground after her first step. Battousai was running too fast for a human to keep up with, and she was just getting pulled along. She wasn't sure how, but she was able to keep her balance as she ran with him. They never caught up to the rest of the group and got to watch as they one by one turned around and had a few laughs at them scrambling after them.

"Nice," Sano said, clapping a hand down on Kaoru's shoulder when they reached the garden, "I forgot you were human."

"Well, we came in last, but we weren't that far back," Battousai said after he'd let go of her wrist.

"Yeah, just give me a bit more warning the next time you wanna do that," she said, running her hands down her thighs, "My legs feel a little weird now."

"It'll probably wear off in a little bit," Yahiko said with a shrug.

"How long do you think it's going to take for Megumi to get here?" Sano asked, looking back towards her. They all turned to face the kitsune walking at an even pace towards them.

"Come on, Megumi!" Misao shouted to her.

She only waved back in response. While they waited for Megumi to join them, Kaoru turned towards the garden. There was a wooden arch at the start of a stone path that wound through various sections of plants. Nothing seemed to be in bloom anymore, but it was still mostly green. It looked well kept. "I've never been back here," she said as she took a couple steps towards the garden.

"It's better in the spring," Battousai told her, taking a few steps to stand beside her.

"Still just a garden," Yahiko added.

Battousai shrugged, and Kaoru only gave him a glance before looking back to the garden.

"Where to next?" Megumi asked when she reached the group. The three facing the garden turned around to greet her.

"Straight back yeah?" Sano asked, walking underneath the arch.

"Yeah, should be," Yahiko answered, "Haven't actually gone back that far."

"The wall should be at the very back, shouldn't it?" Misao asked, falling into step behind Yahiko.

"It goes around the whole campus," Megumi answered, walking ahead and leaving Kaoru and Battousai to decide who would take the next spot. He gestured for her to take it.

"Does Sano actually know where he's going?" Kaoru asked Megumi quietly as they walked through the garden single file.

"Probably not, but I think Yahiko does," she answered, only glancing back once over her shoulder.

"Hey, Battousai," Kaoru said, turning slightly to get a look at the boy behind her. He was a ways behind her, checking out all of the plants they were walking past, but he looked up when she called him. "You ever been to the orchard?"

He nodded, "Only once, but it was in spring and everything was all muddy."

"That doesn't sound like fun," she commented, catching her balance when one of the paving stones moved underneath her weight.

"It wasn't. I almost lost my shoe," he informed her dryly. He stepped over the loose stone.

"I recall losing a shoe and finding it on the roof of the school," she said, giving him a look.

"I had nothing to do with that," he said, spreading his hands out.

"Hurry up!" Sano called out. Kaoru looked up ahead to see that he was several paces in front of Yahiko and that the rest of the group was trailing even farther behind him.

"We're coming!" Misao shouted back, picking up the pace.

"I shouldn't have suggested this," Megumi muttered, just loud enough for Kaoru to make out.

"Should have thought of that early," she responded with a grin.

They arrived at the orchard in a matter of minutes. It was easy to see why it could be confused for a forest. The trees were all in rows and a number had small fruit, but their branches grew in wild directions and all sorts of little low lying plants grew haphazardly between the trunks. Fallen branches and sticks poked up from the taller plants and grasses, and there were probably many more hidden away.

"This doesn't actually look so bad," Sano said once the group had gathered again.

"Yeah, wonder why they left it," Misao said, reaching out for one of the trees.

"Who knows?" Yahiko said with a shrug.

"Think we can climb them?" Kaoru asked, pushing past the edge of the group and further into the orchard.

"I don't think there are any rules against it," Megumi said, crossing her arms.

"If you really want to climb a tree, I suggest the ones down there," Battousai said, gesturing with his head.

Halfway down the rows there were a few trees that had lower and thicker branches, reasonable for climbing. "Let's go," Misao said, leading the way down to the trees.

Kaoru followed behind her, hearing the footsteps of everyone else behind her along with snapping twigs. Misao picked out a tree, grabbed a branch, and pulled herself up. "Come on," she told everyone as she continued her climb up.

"We're coming," Yahiko said, finding his own branch and hauling himself into the tree.

Kaoru reached up for a low branch, just barely getting a grip around it. She walked her feet up the trunk of the tree and felt the bark dig into the skin of her palms and fingers. She hooked her leg over the branch and righted herself. She looked down once she was in a seated position and saw Battousai watching from a few feet away.

She got onto her feet and found her way up to another branch. She checked behind her to see Battousai following her way up. She looked up to see that Misao and Yahiko had already picked out their branches to sit on. Once she was a few more rows of branches up, she noticed that Yahiko was laughing at Sano trying to help Megumi up, who was a very poor climber, while Misao tried to shout out tips to them.

"This is a rather nice spot," Battousai commented from the other direction.

She turned around on the branch she was sitting on to see him a few feet down. He had found a set of branches the perfect distance apart from each other to treat one as a seat and the other as a back rest.

"Yeah, you seem to have found the spot," she told him, leaning back against the tree only to find a knot against her spine.

"I'd say this was a pretty good idea," he said, smiling at her.

"Definitely," she responded, smiling back at him.

* * *

So Battousai and Kaoru seemed to be becoming friends, and Megumi seems to be getting even more averse to exercise. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and hopefully everybody's in character. I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing for the next chapter, but we'll see.

Though there is something that I've sort of come up with. There's not going to really be much chance for them to use their supernatural powers in this story. For whatever reason, I managed to find the normalcy in a supernatural setting. This sort of defeats the purpose of them having supernatural powers in the first place so I came up with a bit of a solution. I was thinking I could write a sequel to this story where they do get to use their powers. I have no idea if I would actually have time to write that, but hey, I think it's an interesting idea.

That said, please review. Also, just in case you're interested, I now have a tumblr under the same username. I'm using it to talk about fanfiction and fandoms.


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